


Unbroken Hearts

by Crazyeight



Category: Digimon - All Media Types, Digimon Tamers
Genre: Action, Action/Adventure, Adventure, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Humor, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-08
Updated: 2017-02-08
Packaged: 2018-09-22 21:46:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 20
Words: 57,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9626909
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crazyeight/pseuds/Crazyeight
Summary: Rika encounters a strange digimon who shoots her with an arrow that makes her fall in love. The unfortunate person who becomes the object of her affection? Takato. Let the madness begin...





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story was originally written waaay back in 2007, so my style, format and knowledge of characters are very different from what they are today. That said, I hope that the story is enjoyable despite its age. :)

The sun was setting over Shinjuku, giving the city a warm glow that had all the looks and appearances of what one would call _home_ , in the truest sense of the word. Home is where the heart is they say (whoever _they_ are), and rarely does one leave it without a sense of departure or a feeling of nostalgia over the times that have been spent in love's warm embrace and the comfort of friends. At the end of the day people were going home, to rest, to relax, and escape from the pressures of reality to their hearts content.

So it was for one young girl with red hair, walking home from the park after spending some time with her friends, thinking on the day's events and admiring the sunset as it turned the color of the sky from a cool blue to a warm orange. This girl wore jeans, a studded leather belt around her waist (and another one around her left leg), a white t-shirt with blue sleeves, and a picture of a full heart emblazoned on the chest. She had her fiery hair tied back into a spiky ponytail, and her violet eyes rested lazily on the sky for a moment longer before returning to the path as she continued her walk. Behind her, a yellow form almost seemed to appear out of nowhere, and quickly vanished just as soon as it appeared. The girl sensed this, but showed no particular concern on her face as she moved. She was used to it, and had been for the past two years. The sense that she got comforted her, as it was once again a reminder that her best friend, a creature known to the world at large as a digimon, and known to her and her friends as Renamon, a kitsune like digimon with grace and beauty to go with her renown fighting prowess, was with her.

The girl, who walked through the park with her partner and friend, was known to some of her contemporaries in the circles belonging to the (once fictional) game of Digimon as the _Digimon Queen_. For those who were closest to her, she was Rika Nonaka, Digimon Tamer extraordinaire.

As Rika continued on her journey through the park, her face assumed a nostalgic look as she took in the light of the sunset. It brought back memories of a time long ago, when she had still been innocent enough to fully and completely trust another with her heart. It wasn't something that she thought of often, but since an incident involving an invading force of mega digimon known as Parasimon, it had crept up in her mind once again, and as time wore on it came more and more. Not much, but it was noticeable, and as a result she had been more open to her friends and fellow Tamers. Again, not much, but it was a step forward in the right direction.

At least, that's what she thought.

 _You promised Dad,_ she thought silently in what could be considered a mental version of a whisper, as though she were afraid that her partner could hear her through the mental rapport that they shared. Almost instinctively, Rika began humming the tune to a song that she had been taught as a little girl. A song called _'Promise to the Setting Sun'_. She continued on like this for a while until she reached the edge of the park. She halted for a moment, as though she were contemplating something. Next to her, Renamon phased into view and looked at her questioningly.

"Rika?" The vulpine digimon asked. The female Tamer looked at her friend and shook her head.

"It's nothing, Renamon. Just thinking is all."

A small smile appeared on Renamon's face. "Anything in particular?"

Again, Rika shook her head. "No, not really. Come on, Renamon. I don't want to be late getting home." Rika set off again, not hurrying, but not dawdling either. If she had been in a real hurry she would have had Renamon get her the rest of the way home. Besides, she wanted to enjoy the walk home. Enjoy the last light of the day before it said farewell once more.

Until it came back tomorrow that is.

For a few more minutes, the silence of the evening was uninterrupted, and Rika basked in its glory.

The sound of her D-Arc going off ended that, and taking a quick look around, Rika found the source of the D-Arc's distressed; a fog was settling a ways off in the park's interior, a sign that a digimon was about to bio-emerge. Rika's eyes flashed and she ran towards the direction of the mists. Behind her, Renamon phased out of reality and followed, not needing to be told what was happening and what needed to be done.

It is a well known fact that Shinjuku is invaded by occasionally large creatures from a plain of existence known as the _Digital World_ , a world that coexists with our own, and is composed of the information that exists within the worlds Internet. These creatures, much like Renamon, are digimon, and some time ago had evolved from simple programs to highly advanced life forms that had a great capacity for developing bonds with humans. However, digimon, much like anything else in life, is a double-edged sword as many, if not all, digimon have a great capacity for destruction. As stated earlier, Shinjuku is invaded on a regular basis by these creatures, often individually, occasionally in small groups, and rarely in large numbers (as was the case in the Parasimon Invasion). This has caused many in the city to develop rather mixed views on the digital creatures, one side stemming from the fact that the livelihood of those who live in the area are often at risk from the strange _Godzilla_ like phenomenon that has entered their existence, and the other coming from the existence of those who must fight using the same resources as the digimon to defend Shinjuku from those that threaten it.

There are two groups that work together to protect the fair city; one is a government agency known as Hypnos. It monitors the data on the Internet, and keeps an eye out for any potential hostiles who might attempt to breach the barrier between the worlds. The other group consists of children who have been bonded to digimon who had successfully passed into the material world safely and non-violently. The humans that they become partnered with are called _Tamers_ , and are the unofficial ground troops of Hypnos for whenever a digimon slips their defenses by and _bio-emerges_ into the real world.

Rika Nonaka is a Tamer, and she practically lives and breathes her chosen lifestyle, even though her fire for it has cooled somewhat over time due to certain events that had occurred early on in her Tamer career. Nonetheless, she still knew her duty, and pursued it with a passion. As she neared the fog like barrier, Rika pulled out a pair of violet sun glasses and slipped them on with one hand, while her other brought out her D-Arc, the device that connected her with her partner and was proof, if proof was needed, that she was indeed a Digimon Tamer.

After passing through the worst of the mists, Rika halted and took off her shades, glancing around for any sign of the digimon, her partner materializing next to her a second later. In the old days, Rika would have had Renamon delete the intruder without thinking about it, but times change, and so do people. She liked to think that she did better now.

"Renamon?" Rika asked, as she continued to look over the area, but the fox digimon shook her head. No sign of the digimon yet, or any of their compatriots, but Renamon felt that would change real soon.

She was right.

" _Such loneliness in your heart,"_ spoke a voice from within the fog. It seemed to come from everywhere at once, but at the same time, nowhere. The voice, oddly, sounded like a child but it spoke with surprising maturity and knowledge, as though all the world's secrets were an open book for it.

"Where are you?" Called out Rika. "Are you a digimon? Come on out so that we can talk!" The faceless voice giggled this time, revealing a more innocent side to its personality. Childish in its sound, but it quickly returned to its earlier, mature, voice.

" _What is missing in your life that causes your heart to feel so empty, Rika? Is it companionship? The loss of a loved one?"_

Rika was taken aback that whoever or whatever it was knew her name. Undaunted, she continued to try and get it to show itself.

"I'm not here to be psychoanalyzed," said Rika. "I'm just here to find the digimon that bio-emerged and take them back to Hypnos so that they can be sent back to the digital world."

" _But why?"_ Asked the voice. _"I don't want to go yet. There's so much pain in this world. So much pain… I want to help heal it. I want to heal everyone…"_

"Look," said Rika. "I can sympathize. Really. If you come with me, maybe we'll see about finding you a Tamer, but if not then you have to go back to the digital world. It's not safe here, and chances are you're not safe for here either. Now why don't you come out so I can see you? I can help you."

The voice was silent for a moment, as though it were considering what Rika's proposition. After a brief period of time, it spoke again, its voice filled with certainty.

" _I want to help everyone,"_ it said kindly. _"I want to help… you."_

Before Rika could respond to that, there was a flash of light and a pink colored energy like arrow imbedded itself into Rika's shoulder before Renamon could even react. Rika cried out in surprise as the force of the impact knocked her off her feet, only to be caught by her partner before she could hit the ground. Renamon reached over to pull the arrow out, but it sunk into Rika's shoulder and vanished, leaving absolutely no sign that it had ever been there to begin with. Rika groaned as she sat up and rubbed her shoulder. She was… confused. She had expected the arrow to hurt, but instead a comforting warmth spread its way from where the arrow had pierced her and made its way through her body. She felt safe, relaxed, but only for a moment. Getting back to her feet, the girl's eyes flashed dangerously as the flame of anger began to build up within her. It shot her! The digimon shot her! That was more than enough of a reason for her to beat the living daylights out of the…

" **Pyrosphere!"** Shouted a voice from across from them, and a red fireball flew through the fog. There was a shout of surprise, and a small figure, concealed within the mists of the digital field, evaded it before flying off into the air and disappearing before Renamon could pursue it. Rika looked back at where the attack had come from, and her eyes settled on a boy as he jogged into view. He had light brown hair, red eyes, a blue hoody, and yellow goggles perched on his head. Running next to him was a large, red dinosaur with a hazard symbol plastered on his chest. He was looking up at the sky and was sniffing the air intently, trying to catch the scent of Rika's assailant, but to no avail. Not that Rika was paying attention to the crimson dino. Her focus was glued to the goggle wearing boy for some reason.

What was more, that warm feeling from earlier was back, and was confined to the area of her cheeks at present.

 _What the…?_ Was her first thought as she felt her heart skip a beat.


	2. Chapter 2

"Aw, man," groaned Takato. "It got away. Guilmon, do you think you could track it, boy?"

The crimson dinosaur sniffed the air but shook his head. "Sorry, Takato, but it hides its smell well."

"Aw… nuts." Takato's shoulder's slumped for a second before he straightened them out again. "Well, I guess that we'll have to let it go for now. Seeing as how it's late we'll try and pick up the trail tomorrow." Takato's face suddenly lit up with a grin. "What do you say, Guilmon? Looking forward to some dinner when we get home?"

"YAAAAY!" Exclaimed the large reptile before promptly launching into yet another round of what everyone had now deemed as the _Guilmon Bread_ song. Takato sighed and shook his head, that same grin still plastered on his face.

"You never change, you know that?"

Guilmon laughed playfully and nuzzled his Tamer. "Not unless you drew me different recently, Takato."

Takato now joined his partner in his laughter before finally turning to look at Rika. She was currently looking away from him and rubbing her shoulder, a strange look was on her face that looked like embarrassment. Renamon stood next to her and was eyeing her carefully. Takato drew a little bit closer to the hotheaded Tamer, his face now set with a serious look.

"Rika?" He asked, his voice practically dripping with concern. "You okay?"

Rika's face snapped up, and she attempted a glare. "Of course I'm _okay_ you stupid, Gogglehead! Whatever made you think that I… uh…" Rika halted in her berating of the goggle-wearing Tamer when her eyes locked with his. Her face lost all of its harshness, and she began to stutter over her next choice of words. Takato cocked his head in confusion while Guilmon just sniffed the ground, not at all paying attention to the sudden difference in Rika's tone of voice.

Takato looked at Rika while she seemed to fumble over her sentences, while Renamon looked at her with a mixture of worry and concern. Shrugging his shoulders, Takato forced his grin back onto his face.

"Hey, take it easy. I know that you don't like it when people show you that their worried about you, but I thought that I'd ask, 'cause earlier when Guilmon and I were coming through the digital field I thought I saw you fall, like you had been hit by something."

"She had been…" began Renamon only to be cut off by her Tamer.

"Let me get one thing straight with you Gogglehead. I'm… _fine_. And I don't need your help either; I can handle things on my own just perfectly. I don't need you to be charging in like some stupid knight in shining armor…"

_Even though I do become a knight when I biomerge with Guilmon,_ thought Takato as he scratched the back of his head in embarrassment, but he decided now was not the time to bring it up. Rika was on the warpath right now, so it was best to roll with the punches and wait for it to be over. But there was something strange going on, Takato felt. Some of the things that she was saying were almost reminiscent of the old Rika, only without the spite and cold edge to her words. Oh, well. That was Rika being… well… Rika. That just seemed to describe everything just perfectly. Takato took a back seat mentally and waited for her to be done so that he could get home.

Actually that didn't take that long since Renamon had chosen that exact moment to lay a paw on her partner's shoulder, interrupting the red headed Tamer from her ranting. Rika halted and looked at her partner before returning her gaze to Takato. Rika blinked a few times as though she was trying to tear her gaze from off of the Gogglehead's face, but wasn't able to. Almost as though there was something about it that… _entranced_ her. Finally, after what seemed like an uncomfortable eternity, Rika looked away with an expression on her face that felt alien to her. _Shyness_. Takato of course, did not even notice.

"I… I'd better go…" muttered Rika as she turned around, hoping desperately that the warm feeling that she felt in her cheeks again wasn't a blush.

"Oh, okay," said Takato cheerfully, grateful that Rika wasn't going to pound him into the dirt or anything. Not that she ever did or would mind you, but she had threatened it often enough in the past (and given her own attitude) that every time she said she would it sounded very much like a promise rather than a vague threat. With that thought soaring through his mind, Takato and Guilmon turned around and took off, Takato taking only a brief moment to look behind him and wave goodbye to Rika before tripping on the ground and falling to the dirt with a cry. Rika, who hadn't seen the unfortunate accident, but heard it, laughed lightly as she walked away, listening to Guilmon asking his never ending questions and Takato's exclamations of pain.

After a while, Renamon phased into view next to her Tamer, even though they were right in public. Renamon reached out and stopped Rika from her journey.

"Rika, are you sure that you're fine?"

Rika frowned at her partner. "Of course I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Did you forget that you had been shot by a digimon?"

"No, Renamon. I didn't forget, but it didn't hurt so why bother worrying about it?"

Renamon seemed perplexed. "It didn't… hurt?" That couldn't be right. A large majority of digimon had attacks that were almost always lethal in one form or another. Even Kenta's partner, MarineAngemon, could be threatening with those hearts of his.

"No, now can we please just drop the subject now? I'm very tired, and I want to go home."

The vulpine digimon nodded. "As you wish Rika. Do you want me to carry you the rest of the way?"

Rika shook her head. "I'm not _that_ tired, Renamon. I just… need to clear my head for a bit."

Renamon nodded and phased out of view again, leaving Rika alone with her thoughts as she resumed walking. Even though she had said that she was fine, she knew that it was sort of a lie, and chances were Renamon knew it but didn't want to push the envelope until she was sure it was necessary.

_Something happened back there_ , Rika thought as she strode down the streets. _But what? What did that crazy digimon do to me? And just what kind of digimon was it anyway?_

No answer came to her, at least none that she could think of right away. Passing a few stores on her way home, Rika found her gaze drawn to one of them and she stopped. Renamon appeared next to her to see why, half expecting whatever it was that caught her eye to be some new digimon card, but the game shop wasn't even on this street, so what…?

Renamon's eyes went wide with surprise as she suddenly saw the answer to her unspoken question.

The store that they were now standing in front of had a display for all to see as they passed by so that everyone could window shop. If something didn't appeal to them they walked on by and were none the worse for wear, but if something did catch their attention, then either the object would quickly be bought, or said customer would beat themselves up over it as they continued on with their daily lives. Now the store in question was something of the everyday sort, nothing special or fancy about it, and if Renamon could recall correctly (unless she somehow wound up in the wrong universe that is), its contents were of the sort that Rika had claimed that she wouldn't be caught dead in. The contents in question contained garments of the kind meant best to express femininity in a person, depending on their tastes. It was all one piece, made of various kinds of fabric. Some were colorful while others were soft, dark, or a combination of all three. But **all** were made to be beautiful and catching to the eye.

Let's be brief, shall we?

Rika was admiring a row of dresses.

After some time of not saying anything, Rika finally spoke. "Hey Renamon? Do you think Takato would notice me if he saw me wearing a dress?"

Renamon had to fight the urge to faint. Battle hardened as she was, used to strange sights and oddities, she had to admit, this was one curveball that she never expected to see coming. Well, maybe when Rika had grown a little older, but this? Renamon quickly looked up at the sky to see, as Terriermon would have put it, if pigs were indeed flying.

There weren't. _Good. Must be a joke,_ thought Renamon. _But whether on Rika's part or the universes remains to be seen._

"Rika, did I just hear you ask me if I thought that Takato would _notice you_ if you wore a dress?"

Rika seemed to start at her partners question before turning a light shade of red. Closing her eyes, Rika shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts. It seemed to work.

"Never mind Renamon. I must be more tired than I thought. On second thought, why don't you just take me home? I think that I might need to go to bed early tonight."

Renamon tilted her head to one side in confusion, but nodded and did as she had been bid.

Later that evening, Rika got underneath the covers of her sleeping bag and sighed in contentment. Looking at the ceiling of her bedroom, the image of Takato's face flittered across her mind and she closed her eyes, a small smile forming on her face. At any other time, she might have wondered why she was thinking of Gogglehead at a time like this, and in a way that surprised her, but for now she felt too tired to pursue the reasons as to why or how. She just needed to rest. That's it… rest…

"Takato…" Rika whispered unknowingly to herself as she drifted off to sleep. Over in the corner of her room, Renamon jolted to attention as she heard the name emerge from her Tamers lips before settling back down.

_I must be hearing things,_ the kitsune thought.

Under the light of the full moon, a figure with angelic wings stared out over the city from his place on the Hypnos towers.

_So much pain out there,_ it thought. _And I'm going to heal them all…_


	3. Chapter 3

_Sakuyamon floated in the air within the canyon, the air radiating a bright, pink light as Sakura blossoms blew around her. She looked at the canyon wall, feeling a mixture of happiness and worry run through her and she spoke at the lone figure that was climbing down into the gorge on what looked like Azulongmon's beard like some kind of epic hero. Kind of like Indiana Jones, only he was a kid with goggles strapped to his forehead. Sakuyamon flew closer to the boy, as she now had his undivided attention. The chaos was trapped, possibly for good, but that wasn't her main concern right now. All that mattered to her was the boy that was holding onto the strands of hair, watching her with wide, amazed eyes. Sakuyamon drew even closer to the boy until she hovered right in front of him._

_"Takato?" She asked as she placed a hand on the boy's shoulder. "Are you alright?"_

_"Oh, yeah. Thanks," the boy responded, still staring at Sakuyamon in a dazed fashion. Almost as though a force was moving her, Sakuyamon leaned towards the boy's face, her lips parting as she came closer._

_"It was nothin'…" Sakuyamon said softly, just before her lips met Takato's._

* * *

**RIIIIING!**

"AAAAAGGGHHH!"

Rika Nonaka sat up with a cry as she heard her mother's alarm clock blaring throughout the house and looked around uncertainly, taking in her surroundings before falling back on her bed and breathing a sigh of relief. She wasn't back in the digital world. D-Reaper had long been destroyed. And she didn't kiss Takato…

_Wait a second,_ thought Rika as she connected two things together. _Kiss… Takato?_

The next thing Rika knew she was running towards the bathroom, knocking her mother out of the way with a quick apology and slammed the door shut. In a second she was leaning over the toilet and dry heaving.

After a few minutes, Rika came out of the bathroom, blushing profusely and again apologized to her mother, who looked at her worriedly and asked her if she was all right. Rika replied that she was and told her not to worry. Closing the door to her room Rika clasped her hands to her face and groaned.

_I can't believe this,_ thought Rika as she leaned against her door. _I just… **dreamt** … no, worse… **fantasized!** … About kissing Takato! And yesterday, at the park, blushing… and… oh my God! The dresses! Aaargh! I can't believe I asked Renamon about… that! _

Heat once again flooded the girl's face and she sagged to the floor and buried her face in her arms, waiting for the renewed blush to go away. After a few minutes she raised her head and looked to see if Renamon was around.

She wasn't.

_Good. I don't think that I could explain that dream to her. Heck, I can't even explain my actions from yesterday. I admit that after Gogglehead 'saved' me on Locomon, and even afterwards when he mode changed I felt… something for him, but it wasn't like this! And it went away after a while too. So why has it come back, now?_

A memory of the arrow piercing her shoulder came to mind and she rubbed her shoulder unconsciously. For one moment, Rika looked like a lost little girl before her face hardened once again.

_No way! I refuse to believe that I got shot by some stupid… 'Cupid' like digimon's arrows! That just doesn't make sense! It's so stupid even I can't believe that I thought of it. That would be something one of the moron twins would think of, or even Gog…_

An image of the brown haired Tamer flashed through her mind again, and Rika felt her body flush. _Stop thinking like that! Rrrrgh… maybe I just better lie low for a while until whatever this is wears off or something. It would probably be a good idea to avoid the park, or better yet, Gogglehead all together._

Renamon phased into view inside her room with her breakfast in hand and noticed that Rika was up.

"Oh," said Renamon. "You're awake. I thought that you would be resting a little longer after yesterday…"

"W-well," Rika stammered, and cursed herself. She usually didn't stammer. "I was sort of thinking about staying in today, and just… hang out. Rest, like you said. Just, be by myself…"

Renamon cocked her head to one side. Rika was acting differently for some reason, and it wasn't just the stutter either (oh yes, she had caught that). She seemed nervous about something and that wasn't like her. Perhaps she should ask her what was wrong.

Before Renamon could even prompt the question, Rika's cell phone rang and she quickly picked it up, not bothering to see who it was.

"Hello?" She asked, and a second later her eyes widened, and her face bloomed once more a lovely shade of red so dark that it caused Renamon to suddenly worry if her Tamer was coming down with a fever. She raised a paw towards Rika's forehead but the girl leaned away and held up a hand as she chewed her lip nervously.

"T-Takato? Why are you…? Oh, yeah. Last night." Renamon sighed with relief. With that last sentence Rika now sounded a little more like her old self, though her stuttering out Takato's name worried her a bit. And then there was her whispering the Tamer's name in her sleep last night. It was so unlike her, and so drastic a change that Renamon began to seriously wonder if the girl _was_ sick. Now she had heard of a condition that humans could have that was called _love sickness_ that had some of the symptoms that Rika was showing now, but she had immediately disregarded it at the time. After all, she had heard it from Terriermon, which, since it came from him, was immediately suspect to questioning.

Now it seemed as though she was going to have to pay the little rabbit-dog a visit.

"The park?" Rika continued. "I don't know, I was hoping on staying in today… no! No! I'm fine! Why would you even _ask_ if I was all right? What? Do you care that much that you have to know how I'm doing every second of the day?" Rika's eyes now seemed to take a hurt look to them. "I'm sorry Takato, it's just that… I had a really _off_ night last night and I'm not in the mood for doing anything." Suddenly Rika's eyes flashed dangerously as over the phone Takato said something that Renamon couldn't quite make out, but it seemed to be said in a joking tone. Apparently Rika didn't think that it was funny.

"Fine," Rika growled, though oddly it sounded more like a farce. "I'll show, if only to prove to you that I'm not a little kid who needs to have their nose blown, unlike _some_ people I know. What? I don't care! It's too late to take it back, I'm coming! Same place as usual right? Okay, see you then."

Rika hung up her phone, and groaned as she got to her feet and got out her clothes for the day. Renamon looked at the girl questioningly.

"Problems?"

Rika shook her head as she held up her t-shirt with the full heart on it. Her mother had given it to her when the D-Reaper had first shown up in the real world, and she wore it ever since that day. For some reason though it held her attention longer than usual, and she just stared at the full heart with a look of nostalgia. As she looked at it, a voice flitted through her mind.

_"I just wanted to say that that shirt looks good."_

Rika once again felt her face flush as she remembered that moment in the tunnel when they were going off to confront the D-Reaper, and Terriermon had made some comment about Renamon and Guilmon _sitting in a tree_. Rika had looked to the side and caught Takato staring at her, and the boy had immediately snapped his gaze away, blushing and humming quietly to herself. There had followed an awkward moment there when Rika had demanded what was up, and at first he had sworn it was nothing, and then turned around and complimented the new shirt that her mom had given her.

_Oh, no…_ Rika thought almost despairingly, but nonetheless felt a small smile curve on her lips. A paw placed itself on Rika's shoulder, startling her out of her memories. Looking over her shoulders, Rika found herself looking into the face of a concerned digimon.

"Rika…?"

"It's nothing, Renamon. Just… thinking." _Again. That excuse sounded so lame._

"I need to get dressed now, Renamon, so if you don't mind?"

"Of course." The vulpine digimon turned to go, but Rika stopped her.

"Hey, Renamon? Back when we were in the digital world, when we first merged into Sakuyamon; did I _ask_ Takato if he was okay? And I don't mean the others, I mean only Gogglehead."

Renamon thought back to that day for a moment before nodding. "Yes, I believe you did. Why do you ask?"

"No reason," replied Rika. "I'd better get dressed so that we can go to that _Tamers_ meeting that Takato is organizing at the park. Probably going to be about that digimon we encountered last night…" Rika trailed off as she sensed Renamon leave her room. Didn't matter. Renamon could probably guess what it was that she was talking about anyway.

* * *

Takato hung up the phone and scratched his head in confusion. Rika didn't sound like her usual self when he had talked to her. Well, except for that part around the end when he had made fun of her about needing to be put on bed rest and missing her curfew, but even that didn't sound like she was very angry about it. She had sounded unusually… _something_. Takato couldn't think of the right word, probably because he had never really associated her with the word _fear_ (except for that one time with IceDevimon) or anything even remotely close to it. Had he, he probably would have thought that she sounded nervous, but since he didn't… well, he was basically clueless. Takato looked over at his partner, who was watching him patiently.

"Rika's coming to," the boy said to Guilmon before doing a quick headcount of who was going to be there. _Let's see… Henry, Jeri, Kazu, Kenta… that's just about it. Well, with the exception of Impmon's partners and Susie, but they're a little young for that sort of thing anyway. Oh, and Ryo, but I can't seem to find his number in the phone book. In fact, I'd almost swear that he had gone to the digital world again, just like he did before the Parasimon invasion. I wonder why he did that…_

"Hey, Takato!" Called out a familiar voice that the boy didn't expect to hear today, or believe that he would hear again, though he quickly berated himself for thinking like that. Turning, the young goggle wearing Tamer looked at the confident face of one Ryo Akiyama and smiled at seeing his comrade in arms again. _Comrade_ because the older boy didn't come around enough for Takato to call him a friend, but he still liked to see a familiar face again. In a lot of ways, seeing Ryo was like trying to get Rika to smile (even though she did it more often now). Rare, but always good to see; kind of like a buried treasure. Takato chuckled lightly.

"You know, when Kazu and Kenta see you they're going to flip."

Ryo grinned. "Maybe I picked a bad time to stroll through the park then. I take it that you're expecting them today?"

Takato nodded. "Not just them, but everyone else. Well, except maybe for the younger ones but you get the idea, right? We're having a Tamers meeting today, because last night something really weird went down and a digimon slipped by us…"

"Maybe you should hold off until the others get here before telling me," said Ryo. "Or do they already know?"

Takato shook his head. "Just me and Rika. We were the only ones there…"

Ryo laughed. "I don't believe it. A digimon got by _that_ Wildcat? I didn't think that was possible. Guess the age of miracles isn't over after all."

Takato smiled. "Yeah, I guess so. But she's been acting kind of weird since then. She didn't sound like herself when I called her up and told her about the meeting. She actually _wanted_ to not show up today. Can you believe that?"

Ryo frowned. "Didn't want to show up, huh? Wonder why? It's not like her to let her pride go un-avenged like that. Did anything happen to her in that fight?"

"Not that I could see really, though I thought that she had been hit by the digimon because I saw her getting off the ground when I showed up. Couldn't really tell though because Guilmon and I were still running through the fog."

Ryo nodded. "Well, it's probably nothing but maybe we should see about keeping a close eye on her for now. Are you going to ask Henry what he thinks when he gets here?"

"Nah. It's probably nothing. I mean, it's Rika. What could be wrong with her? She didn't have a scratch on her when I saw her, and she didn't sound like she was hurt either so I don't see any reason to worry."

Ryo nodded again, though not quite agreeing with Takato's reasoning. He'd keep an eye on the fiery girl just to be on the safe side, but until then he wouldn't push the issue.

"Okay," said Ryo. "If you say so. So when's the meeting?"

"Soon. Rika was the last Tamer I called, so the others should be coming in soon."

Suddenly, an enthusiastic voice could be heard echoing across the park, sending birds into flight and causing the two boys to look in the direction of the disturbance.

"YO! RYO!" Called out Kazu as he ran the remaining distance towards the Legendary Tamer, unable to contain the happiness that he felt in the bottom of his soul at the sight of his idol. "ALL RIGHT! YOU DIDN'T TELL ME THAT YOU WERE GOING TO BE IN TOWN, TODAY! THIS IS AWESOME!"

"And this is why I didn't tell anyone that I was going to be here," said Ryo under his breath as he sweat dropped and put on a fake, nervous grin. Takato did likewise.


	4. Chapter 4

Rika Nonaka walked on her path through the park, feeling slightly uncomfortable with the thought of the up and coming meeting. In the past she would have laughed and berated herself for even having that emotion but this time was different. Something was happening to her that made it difficult for her to concentrate on keeping her cool. The fact that that something had to do with a certain boy with yellow goggles was a subject that Rika tried desperately to keep out of her mind for fear of the feelings that thoughts of him would bring. Sadly though, his face now seemed to have taken up residence in her heart as well as her mind, and as a result her thoughts kept drifting towards him. Subtle things at first, mostly about all the times that they had been together, but now it seemed that every time she closed her eyes she saw Takato's smiling face like a ray of light from the sun and her heart sighed at every look.

It was starting to drive her just a little bit crazy.

She and Renamon were now approaching Guilmon's den. Able to see it from where they were, Rika decided to stop for a bit and called out to Renamon. The kitsune digimon quickly appeared next to her.

"Yes?"

"Renamon. During this meeting I don't want you to mention anything about my being shot."

"But Rika…"

"I mean it, Renamon. Not a word! The last thing I need is for them to baby me when we should be trying to hunt down that wild digimon. We can't afford to be distracted."

Renamon nodded reluctantly. She didn't agree with her Tamer that something like that should be kept secret, but she would respect her Tamer's wishes.

"Very well, Rika. I will do as you ask. But should something happen where it might be important to let them know…" Renamon trailed off seeing Rika nod her head in exaspiration.

"Fine. But _only_ until then. For now, I don't want a word of that moment being breathed to _anyone_. Not Gogglehead, Not Henry, not Jeri, no one."

"I understand."

"Good. Now let's go meet up with the others."

Rika began to take a step towards the hut, but suddenly she saw something that made her breath catch. Renamon looked at her with a confused expression on her face before following her gaze. Renamon frowned as she tried to puzzle out the reason for Rika's pause.

* * *

"Hey! Jeri!" Exclaimed Takato Matsuki as he saw his friend and former Tamer walking up the stairs that led to Guilmon's hut. "Good to see you again!"

The brown haired girl with the green dress known as Jeri Katou giggled lightly as she stopped in front of the goggle wearing boy.

"Hey, Takato," she said to him, and the boy blushed lightly and rubbed the back of his head nervously. Behind them, there followed some laughter from a certain long eared digimon that was partnered with Takato's best friend, Henry Wong. But before the little dog bunny could say anything, Ryo Akiyama came up to the entrance (mostly to get away from Kazu, but he'd never admit that) and grinned at the two.

"C'mone you lovebirds. You can catch up later after the meeting. The only person that we're waiting on now is… RIKA!"

"You don't have to shout, Ryo," said Takato as he gave the legendary Tamer an odd look.

"No, I mean, there's Rika. She's down on the path, right there."

"Really?" Asked Takato, and both he and Jeri took a look. Sure enough they found her. Kind of hard to miss her due to the unique color of her hair and the style it was in.

"Huh," said Jeri. "She's just standing there. Wonder why?"

"Well, we could just ask her…"

"HEY! RIKA!" Shouted Jeri, causing Takato and Ryo to both jump in surprise at the girl's sudden outburst. Down on the path, Rika seemed to jump too, but no one noticed. "WHY DON'T YOU COME ON UP?"

"YEAH!" Shouted Takato, quickly recovering from the surprise. "EVERYONE'S WAITING ON YOU! LET'S GO!"

That finally got Rika going, and Takato sighed and looked over at Ryo with an apologetic look on his face. Ryo chuckled.

"Didn't see that one coming," said Ryo grinning.

"Well, Leomon always did use to say that she had a lion's heart," said Takato before his face fell at the memory of the proud digimon that had died defending them. He hadn't been with them long, but the affect that he had on them had been huge and life altering, and in more ways than one. He looked over at Jeri to see if she had been hurt by the reminder of her lost partner, but she gave the boy a reassuring smile and Takato immediately felt better, though his heart was still troubled. Jeri still grieved for the lion digimon every now and then, but she had made her peace with what had happened, and with the perpetrator of his end a long time ago. She had moved on. The damage that she had dealt to D-Reaper during the last battle was a very dramatic demonstration of that.

Takato smiled at the girl as his heart felt a little bit brighter for the first time that day.

Rika had indeed been jolted out of her reverie when Jeri had called out to her, and then when Takato had joined in… oh, her face felt like it was on fire. As the red haired Tamer began to climb the steps, she swallowed nervously. Thank God Ryo hadn't chipped in his two cents (she had seen him up there right before Jeri had called to her). That just would have made things worse, and she was having enough on her plate dealing with her current problem.

Renamon had been watching Rika's reactions from the moment Jeri had called out to her. She noted, with some amusement, the redness that spread across the girls face like wildfire when Takato had also called out. As Renamon followed her partner she began to put together some notes in her mind, and her eyes widened slightly as a thought suddenly occurred to her.

_No,_ the vulpine digimon thought. _It couldn't be. Could it?_

Renamon didn't know whether to laugh at the absurdity of the notion or cry at it's reality. But she did know that if what she thought was certain, she would feel happy for her partner. After all, it wasn't as though something like this occurred everyday.

A small smirk played across Renamon's features as they ascended the stairs.

"Hey there, Wildcat," said Ryo in a joking tone. "I was starting to worry that you weren't going to get here and miss out on seeing me. Especially after Takato told me that he was worried about you."

Again Rika blushed, though because it was such a light shade of red everyone was able to pass it off for the heat.

"As if this day wasn't getting any longer," Rika said, rolling her eyes in irritation. "What are you doing here, Akiyama?

"Relax, would ya? I was just strolling through the area and I came across Takato. He told me about the meeting that he had arranged with all of you and I figured that I might lend a hand. Besides I couldn't pass up the chance to see you again, my Queen."

Rika's mouth gaped in surprise and Ryo began counting down from ten, waiting to see if the Nonaka girl would make it past five before she exploded. Most people had an idea that it wasn't a good idea to annoy her, but Ryo wasn't most people. Not by a long shot. Being stuck in the digital world with a barely in control digimon who could crush him without breaking a sweat had a lot to do with that. Besides, it was just so entertaining to poke fun at the girl.

"Ryo," said Rika slowly. "You're lucky that I'm not in the mood to pound on you right now. Otherwise, you'd be kissing dirt right now."

"Ha! You wish," said Ryo. "Though I don't think I'd mind it. It'd be almost the same as kissing you…"

Now Rika had been going through multiple colors of red all morning so far, but Ryo's latest comment brought a whole new shade into existence that rivaled even Gallantmon when he changed into his Crimson Mode, and that's quite an accomplishment. Had any art students been around without a vested interest in staying alive they would have immediately tried to capture that color. In fact, an artist could probably go for years and never quite obtain what Rika had this day.

Rika stepped forward with a low, predatory growl emanating from her throat.

"You're dead, Ryo."

And that was when Takato, good Samaritan that he was, decided to intervene.

"Hey! Come on! Can't you two just give it a break for once? We kind of have something that we have to take care of… remember?"

Rika found herself trapped in Takato's gaze and lowered her fists. With an effort, she tore her eyes away and looked down at the ground, suddenly finding a piece of dirt by her feet that looked very interesting.

"Fine," Rika mumbled as she felt that familiar heat creep back into her cheeks.

"Good… wait. Wha…?" Now Takato was confused.

_Did… did Rika **actually** agree to not hurt someone? Did she actually listen to **me**? I must be hearing things!_

Takato was not the only one to be bewildered. Ryo and Renamon felt much the same, though in Renamon's case it was to a far less degree than with Ryo. The suspicion that was close to being confirmed in Renamon's mind was already beginning to form in Ryo's. A small smile began to form on the Legendary Tamer's face as he looked back and forth between the goggle headed Tamer and the red haired girl, who was now looking shyly down at the ground.

_I'm seeing it, but I don't believe. Must be the heat. Or a trick of the eye. Heck, maybe I'm hallucinating. From the same heat that's making Rika blush right now. Yeah, that's it._

Ryo shook his head, but the action did nothing to get rid of the thoughts that were now bubbling to the surface in his mind. _Rika? Rika Nonaka? The Digimon Queen? In love with Takato? Nah…_

_Still, it would be kind of funny if she were…_

Standing next to Takato, Jeri watched the exchange with curious eyes. Unlike Ryo, and perhaps even Renamon, she had already reached a conclusion based on what she had seen. In her mind, Jeri giggled like a little girl.

_If I didn't know any better, I'd say someone likes someone…_

Before she could pursue the thought any further, the whiney voice of Kazu called out to them.

"HEY! ARE YOU GUYS GOING TO GET IN HERE SO THAT WE CAN GET THIS SHOW ON THE ROAD OR WHAT?"

Rika quickly barged through the other three and got inside the hut and sat down while the others followed suit. Grinning devilishly, Jeri decided to test her theory and arranged for Takato to sit next to the red headed Tamer, which caused another round of blushing on the poor girl's part. Ryo, who had taken it upon himself to sit across from the three in order to best watch Rika's reactions, grinned as he caught the discoloration of Rika's face in the darkened hut.

_Oh, yeah. Man, she's got it bad…_

"Okay, Takato," said Henry as he leaned forward. "You mind telling us what this is all about?"

"Yeah," demanded Kazu. "What's so important that you had to interrupt my much needed vacation from Ms. Asagi?" Next to him Kenta groaned. They, like Takato, had the unfortunate luck of being stuck in her class for yet another year. It was almost as though they had been fated to go through the same dog and pony show as the last time. It was actually kind of disturbing, and all three of them had remarked on it at one time or another. Even Henry, who had the luck of not having to suffer from having the same teacher as before commented that they seemed to be stuck in a time loop when it came to Ms. Nami Asagi.

Like I said, very disturbing.

Takato nodded in response to Kazu's question. "Last night, as I'm sure you all know, a digimon biomerged around the area of the park."

"Yeah, we caught that on our digivices…" began Henry but Kazu overrode him.

"Not me! I didn't even _have_ my digivice with me last night!"

There followed a round of groans. Terriermon turned to the visor-wearing boy.

"I'm starting to see why Rika sees you as a disgrace to Tamers everywhere."

"Hey!"

"You're starting to see that _now_?" Asked Kenta to the dog bunny.

"HEY!"

"Well, no. I just thought that someone other than Rika should bring it up for once."

"Oh."

Takato cleared his throat and got everyone's attention.

"Moving on…" he said once he was sure that there wasn't going to be anymore outbursts from Kazu (which was being remedied by a certain Legendary Tamer who had taken it upon himself to grab at one of his pressure points and ignore his pleas to be let go). "As I was saying, as I'm sure you all know, a digimon biomerged in the area of the park. Rika and Renamon were the first to show up there, and then I arrived. The digimon was able to get away before I could ID it, but I think Rika…"

"I didn't get to see it either," said Rika looking downcast.

"Well, I guess that closes that door," said Takato as he sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

"Sorry," muttered Rika, and everyone looked at her strangely.

"Did I just hear her right?" Muttered Terriermon as he mockingly cleaned out his ears. Henry ground his knuckles on his partner's head, and ignoring the digimon's cries looked at Takato.

"So what do you think that we should do? Split into pairs and patrol the city for this digimon?"

Rika's heart suddenly sped up.

"I was sort of thinking along the lines of that, but I think that we should also alert Yamaki and let him know what's going on. He might be able to pinpoint it for us faster."

Henry nodded. "I'll call my dad, and tell him about it. Then he can tell Yamaki for us."

Takato nodded. "All right. All we need to do now is select partners and hit the streets to search for this mystery digimon. Danger and adventure await…"

"Let's just get this over with already," said Kazu. "I'm with Ryo."

Ryo visibly sweat dropped, but no one noticed.

"Hey!" Protested Kenta. "How come you get to go with him?"

"Because I said so first! Not my fault if you're slow…"

"Actually," said Ryo calmly and plainly. "I think that I'll go with Takato…"

"What? Oh, man… chumly? How come you get to be so lucky?"

Takato shrugged and smiled. "Okay, so it's me and Ryo and…"

"I'll go with Rika," said Jeri in a voice so chirpy that the others gave her a strange look. Not least of all Rika.

"But… Jeri…"

"I'm sure that we'll have _lots_ of fun together," giggled the sock puppet-loving girl. "And if we do run into that mysterious digimon, I'm confident that you can handle it just fine! Besides, we have _so_ much to talk about." There was a strange glint in Jeri's eye that made Takato suddenly question the girl's sanity.

_Oookay… what is she up to?_

"… … Whatever…" Rika muttered as she finally gave in. Jeri giggled once again and took out her sock puppet, putting it on her hand she let out one excited _woof_ before getting up and began dragging Rika towards the shed's entrance, despite Rika's protests.

The other Tamers watched the odd scene with stunned looks on their faces.

"Is it just me," began Kenta as he cleaned his glasses to make sure that what he had just witnessed was not just a lens defect. "Or did Jeri suddenly go off the deep end?"

"Ahhh… it's Jeri!" Exclaimed Kazu. "She's crazier than a Sushi sandwich! She's always been like that anyways. Honestly chumly. I don't know what you see in her."

Takato blushed lightly as he got up to his feet, suddenly eager to get out of Guilmon's home. "Oh, my. Look at the time. We'd better get started Ryo. Come on, Guilmon!"

Ryo grinned as he got to his feet. "We're going to have to make a pit stop at my house so that we can pick up Monodromon."

Takato looked at him and raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, why don't you have him with you?"

"Long story," said Ryo with a sigh and an exhausted grin.

Kazu watched the two depart before turning to Henry. "Well, I guess that you're stuck with… Hey! We're do you think you're going?"

"To find a phone," said Henry. "I've got to call my Dad. Later."

"Bye, Kazu!" Giggled Terriermon. "Have fun! Don't forget to write!"

Kazu hung his head. "I don't believe this…"

"What?" Asked Kenta. Kazu's head snapped up.

"Nothin'! Let's go hunt some digimon!"

_He's so crazy,_ thought Kenta as he looked at his partner MarineAngemon.

"PiPuPi," said the pink fairy digimon. Kenta nodded in understanding.

"You said it."

Kazu gave the two a weird look before he got to his feet to go grab Guardromon.


	5. Chapter 5

Yamaki walked towards the building that housed Hypnos, quickly pocketing the cell phone that he had out, just having gotten off the phone with a technician who needed something explained to him. Honestly, it seemed like he was always having to explain something to someone. Most of the powers that were or had been at one point behind the creation and funding of Hypnos hadn't truly understood the things that he had done or had planning, they only cared about the financial costs that they entailed. Even so, they at least had a better understanding of the situation and the technology that he worked with than some of his own employees. Heck, even the Tamers that Hypnos _associated_ with could understand it at least a little bit, especially the Wong boy. It was almost ironic that those who were in his employ, who worked with this sort of thing on an almost daily basis, needed to have things dumbed down for them…

"Aaagh!" Yamaki suddenly stumbled to one knee as he felt something pierce the back of his leg. Reaching behind it he checked it over to see if there were any injuries. Oddly enough, there wasn't.

_Must've been a muscle spasm,_ thought the dreary head of Hypnos as he started to get up.

"Um… are you all right, Yamaki?" Asked a female voice, and Yamaki froze in place, still in the same kneeling position. Looking to his left he saw a woman with pale skin and long, dark red hair. She was the chief operator of Hypnos, and his confident Riley. For some reason, the woman captivated Yamaki, and he felt his heart pounding a harsh drumbeat in his chest at the very sight of her. His throat felt like it was constricting, preventing him from speaking. Riley was looking at him worriedly.

"Um… sir?"

Yamaki snapped out of it, and on sudden inspiration he reached forward and took one of her hands in his own, holding it tenderly while Riley gave him a strange look.

"I'll be fine if you answer just one question," he said with a smile on his face.

"Um… and… uh… what would that be… sir?" Asked Riley feeling a little bit uncomfortable with Yamaki's sudden display of affection.

Yamaki's smile broadened and he took off his sunglasses to look at the chief operator more fully.

"Will you marry me?"

For some reason, Riley felt like fainting.

* * *

"Okay," said Henry as he finished up his conversation with his dad. "Thanks. I'll talk to you later. Bye."

Henry hung up the pay phone and looked at his partner, Terriermon, who was sitting on top of the phone box, watching his Tamer in what could be said to be bored amusement.

"Well, Dad's going to let Yamaki know what the situation is once he gets in. So we might as well hit the streets and try to find that digimon from last night."

Terrermon nodded and leapt onto Henry's head, giggling playfully.

"You know, I still can't believe that it got by Rika and Takatomon. I mean, Takato I can understand…"

"Terriermon…" began Henry warningly, but the rookie ignored him.

"… But Rika shouldn't have had any trouble taking it down. I mean, she _is_ the Digimon Queen after all, so you'd think that she'd be the least likely out of all of us to be tripping over their own shadows just to get at a digimon…"

"TERRIERMON!" Shouted Henry in exaspiration. Seriously, why did it seem like every one of their conversations end up like this? He must have done something wrong in a past life or something to deserve this.

Terriermon giggled. "You don't think that our _royal highness_ is starting to get rusty, do ya? She did seem to be acting kind of strange at the meeting today."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"Jeez, do I have to spell it out to you? She _apologized_ to Takato for not getting a good look at the digimon, or did you not catch that? Of course, then again, Jeri was acting pretty strange too so I guess that would've trumped any other weirdness that was there."

Henry sighed. "I didn't notice anything that wasn't out of the ordinary; that is, if there's anything ordinary about our group." Henry brought out his D-Arc and activated the compass function. "Let's just locate this digimon already."

"My, someone's in a rush. What? Is saving the world taking up too much of your free time?"

"Terriermon…"

* * *

Rika and Jeri walked down the streets while Renamon remained hidden from view, all three of them keeping an eye out for their mysterious digimon. For the two girls this was actually harder than it looked. On Rika's part, she was trying to avoid eye contact with Jeri and keep her thoughts focused on the mission and away from a certain Gogglehead who, even though he wasn't around, kept finding a way to intrude into her thoughts, making the red haired girl curse the day that she had ever met him, while silently rejoicing over it. As for Jeri, she kept looking at Rika with a knowing grin on her face, paying more attention to her than to the job that she was supposed to be doing. She wasn't worried about missing their target. After all, they had Renamon with them, and there was very little that could get by her.

"So, Rika," began Jeri, and Rika felt her muscles tense. "When did it start?"

"Huh?" Asked Rika in confusion, even though she was sure what it was that Jeri was asking about. "When did what start?"

"You know," said the puppet-loving girl with a giggle. And then she lowered her voice and leaned in closer. "Takato," she whispered, and Rika almost froze on the spot, her face beginning to feel just a little bit warm.

_Oh, no. Tell me it isn't that obvious…_

"Er… what about Takato?"

"All right," giggled Jeri. "You don't have to tell me if you want. I just think that it's good that you're _connecting_ with someone now. I hope that you have good luck with him."

"I'm not sure that I'm following you, Jeri," Rika lied. "Why are you wishing me good luck with Takato? Aren't you with him?"

Jeri smiled softly, noting that Rika had asked if she was _with Takato_.

_So she **does** know what I'm talking about. Rika, I never would have guessed…_

Jeri repressed another giggle. "Well, sure I do like him, but we are young and we're all friends too, so I don't see why you shouldn't have a chance with him either…"

"Listen Jeri," said Rika, stopping now and assuming an impatient stance. "There's _nothing_ going on between me and that Gogglehead. There _never_ will be, and even _if_ there was I…" Rika now looked a little embarrassed. "… I wouldn't want it to come between us. We're friends, and I wouldn't want to disrupt anything that could give you happiness."

Jeri looked at her friend in understanding. "I know that you mean well, Rika. But shouldn't you have a chance at happiness too? Like I said, we're young and things can change over time. I mean, look at you! Remember how you used to think that digimon were nothing more than data?"

"Yeah, but…"

"No buts!" Asserted Jeri forcefully, surprising Rika. "You can't just wall yourself off from others all the time just because you're afraid of being hurt or hurting others. You may act tough most of the time, but when it comes to emotions…"

"Jeri! I get it. You don't need to remind me of things that I've thought about myself…"

"Well, it seems like you do need reminding every now and then, especially where love is concerned."

"Jeri…" growled Rika, starting to lose her cool, but the other girl just laughed.

"Come on. We still have a digimon to find." Grabbing Rika by the arm again, Jeri began dragging the poor girl down the sidewalk, biting back protests as they went. After a few minutes, Jeri again turned to Rika with a mischievous grin.

"You know, I'll bet Takato would like it if you let your hair down more often…"

"JERI!" Shouted Rika as she once again felt her face heat up in embarrassment, and once again Jeri giggled.

* * *

Above the two girls, Renamon, having heard snippets of their conversation chuckled lightly to herself. This, she could tell, was going to be an amusing time for her.

* * *

Ryo, Takato, and Guilmon walked through the crowds as they headed for the Legendary Tamer's home. According to Ryo, after his misadventure in the digital world he had become even more of a celebrity and it was causing some problems for his family who only wanted to live in some measure of peace and quiet. However, being a well-recognized face didn't really help things, and news reporters coming around at all hours of the day and calling nonstop was enough to drive anyone crazy (and having a digimon who could digivolve into a rather aggressive, sometimes violent, creature didn't help things either), so the decision had been made that they move to a less busy section of the city while (at the request of Hypnos) remaining close by should anything go awry and the other Tamers needed help with a wild one. Fortunately this meant that Ryo now lived closer to the Tamers (much to Rika's chagrin) and that cut down on travel time considerably. Takato and Ryo checked their D-Arcs every so often to see if the wild digimon was nearby but so far there was nothing. Which could be a good thing if one of the others had found it and taken care of it.

However, when Takato had suggested this Ryo discarded the idea on the basis that if their quarry had been found by one of the others they most likely would have heard the commotion. After all, they hadn't been separated from the others for that long.

They had been traveling in silence for a few minutes, and Ryo decided to speak up in order to liven things up.

"So, how've things been since I've been gone?"

Takato looked at Ryo and smiled. "Oh, peachy. There's the occasional digimon that breaks through the barriers between the world but I suppose you already know about that…"

Ryo nodded, grinning. "And Rika…?"

"Rika? Hmmm… let me see… she's been fine I guess. She still goes to that private school, she still complains about the uniform that she has to wear and about the girls she shares her classes with, and attends Digimon tournaments but other then that nothing different has come up. I guess."

"Hmmm… somehow I doubt that," said Ryo with a sly smile. Takato gave the Legendary Tamer a questioning look.

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"Nothing. Well, it's just that there's always something going on with that girl that she doesn't tell you guys about right?"

"Isn't that true for any one of us?"

"Yeah, but I think that with Rika this would be a special case."

Okay, now Takato was confused. "Um… why would that be, Ryo? She always seems to act the same to me, never doing anything different unless she's feeling a little extra happy or a little extra down…"

Ryo chuckled. "I'll bet," he said and tipped the boy a wink. Takato blinked and frowned.

"How did we get on the topic of Rika anyway? I thought that you wanted to know how everyone was doing since you last saw us?"

"I do. I just sometimes wonder about her you know? She always seems to be lonely, even when she's with you guys or even Renamon. It's almost as though she's holding something back. I was just wondering if _someone_ here had an idea why."

_Now_ Takato was very confused. He didn't understand why Ryo kept the conversation on Rika. You'd think that by now they would have switched to Henry or Jeri, or even Kazu…

Suddenly, something clicked in Takato's mind and a wide grin spread across his face. Ryo noted this with some amusement, wondering if the Gogglehead had put two and two together.

"I get it," said Takato as if he had just discovered the mystery of life. "You _like_ Rika!"

Ryo face faulted with a cry, and Takato looked at the Legendary Tamer worriedly.

"Um… you okay? You don't have to admit it you know…"

"GAAH! No, it's not that," said Ryo as he got to his feet. "Rika's a nice girl… well, I don't know about nice but she's okay. What I mean is I'm not interested in Rika… like that. I respect her for her strong Tamer skills, and I love teasing her but it's not in that way."

Takato nodded, grinning. "Sure, whatever helps you sleep at night, Ryo."

_Suddenly I feel a nosebleed coming on,_ thought Ryo deliriously as they turned the corner and began approaching his home.

* * *

Janyu Wong had been ringing Yamaki's phone for the past hour. The man was late. Very late. In fact, unusually so. He should have been in work a while ago, and so should have Riley. In fact, it was Riley's partner, Talley who had apprised him of their absence that had prompted him to look for the man. He had told Talley about the wild one that Takato and Rika had slip by them last night and the Hypnos Operator to scan the area for abnormal readings other than the Tamer's digimon and she had told him that she'd have something for him in a little bit, but without an experienced hand to help her with the scanners it was going to take some time. Janyu had just nodded and began the task of tracking down the head of Hypnos, wondering if his disappearance had anything to do with that mysterious digimon that Henry had told him about.

* * *

The angelic figure flew through the air, giggling happily as he strung the string of his bow.

_Happy hearts!_ He thought. _Happy hearts for everyone!_

_I must share it with **EVERYONE**!_

The angelic cherub flew back towards the city as he plucked another arrow from his quiver and took aim, laughing childishly.


	6. Chapter 6

"The hour groweth late," said Kazu as he leaned against Guilmon's stone hut. "And those two girls still aren't back. Typical. Why am I not surprised?"

"Um… because you rarely are?" Asked Guardromon.

"It was a rhetorical question, Guardromon…" said the visor wearing boy.

"No, I think the overgrown can of beans has a point," laughed Terriermon from on top of Henry's head. "With an IQ level as low as yours I'm surprised that you could have the brains to be surprised about anything."

"Who asked you? And Henry, isn't this where you yell at your partner or something?"

Henry laughed and rapped his knuckles on his partner's forehead. "Nope. I actually think that he has a good point there."

"Well, I'm glad that _someone_ does for once."

"Don't let it go to your head, Terriermon. I'm still going to give you a talking to about rudeness when we get home."

"Aw… nuts…"

Takato and Ryo looked at the dark haired boy with curious eyes.

"So… no luck on the Hypnos front?" Asked Takato. Henry shook his head.

"I called my Dad around lunchtime. He says that no ones seen Yamaki all day. Or his chief operator, Riley, either."

"Yeah," said Terriermon. "It's strange. You'd almost think that they've gone and eloped somewhere or something of that sort."

"Hmmm…" said Henry.

"I doubt it," said Kazu. "That guys always come off as a fruit basket, and is about as cold as my grandmother's refrigerator. Come to think of it, he's crazier than either of them too."

"Cra-zier than…" began Guardromon but Kazu quickly interrupted him.

"What'd I tell you about getting your own lines?"

"Sorry…"

On the sidelines, Kenta and MarineAngemon just sweat dropped.

"Kazu does have a point," said Ryo. "Jeri and Rika have been gone a long time. We were supposed to meet around 1:00 and exchange information, but here it is 2:30 and they're still nowhere to be found."

Takato frowned. "You don't think that they found that digimon do you?"

Ryo shrugged. "We have no way of knowing at this point."

"Man, we really need to get cell phones like Rika. How are we supposed to coordinate a search when we've only got one in a group of seven?"

"Yeah," put in Kazu. "Maybe we can see about getting Yamaki to spring us some whenever he decides to get in."

"It sure would make things easier," said Kenta.

"Yeah, but can you imagine the phone bill?" Asked Terriermon sarcastically. "Especially when it comes to you two? I almost pity poor Ryo…"

Ryo actually flinched at the thought, and next to him Monodromon snickered.

"What's so funny?"

"Nothing…"

"Uh, huh. Right."

Takato looked down at the path as he patted Guilmon on the head, and he lowered his head in sadness. _Boy, I sure hope Jeri and Rika are okay. What am I thinking? Of course they are! They're some of the strongest people I know. If they're late, I'm sure that they have a good reason for it!_

* * *

"No. I'm not going in there!"

"But Rika…"

"What part of _no_ don't you understand? I'm still not going into that store! We're supposed to be on a _mission_ , remember? In fact, I think that we were supposed to meet up with Takato and the others over an hour ago, but instead we're here. And why are we here anyway? I don't even like…"

"Oh, come on, Rika! We've passed this store three times during our search, and I've seen you take a look at those dresses each and every time. And it was more than just a quick glance…"

"I was… um… day dreaming about burning them! Now, come on! We've still got to…"

"Oh, you don't need to worry about that. I already asked Renamon to go tell them that we're _running_ some errands for your mom while we're out and inform them of the progress of our search. No worries."

"Wha…? When did you…?"

"The last time you were staring at the dresses, of course! Now, come on! Takato's _waiting_ …"

"Wait! No! JERI!"

* * *

_Yeah,_ thought Takato as he waited patiently for any sign of the two errant Tamers. _I'm sure that they have a good reason for being late…_

It was at that moment that a certain yellow fox like digimon appeared in front of them.

"RENAMON!" Shouted Takato and Henry. Ryo gave the kitsune a bewildered look but otherwise wasn't very surprised by this.

"I suppose that you're wondering where Jeri and Rika are," spoke the vixin. "So Rika sent me to see if you were hear and explain to you that she had to run some _errands_ for her mother."

Takato, Henry, Kazu, and Kenta nodded their understanding (actually, Kazu complained as well as nodded, but we won't go into that), but Ryo happened to notice a small smile on Renamon's face, unseen by the all but Ryo, who happened to be in the proper light to catch it.

_I'm willing to bet that that's **not** the reason that Rika has. I wonder… Renamon, you sly… man. Did she **have** to do this during what could conceivably be a dangerous situation with that wild digimon running loose?_

"Um," began Takato. "Did you guys happen to run into…?"

"No."

"Oh. Well, I guess that there's not much else for us to do except to try patrolling again…"

"Ohhh…" complained Kazu. "Takato! We've been walking for _hours_. You'd think that we've earned a little rest after this one…"

"I have to agree with you on that," said Kenta, and MarineAngemon nodded his agreement even though all he did was float around. Even Henry nodded, though reluctantly.

"They're right Takato. We should rest for a bit and try again later. Besides, maybe this digimon isn't really a threat. We haven't seen a single attack at all since it's crossed over."

"Maybe," said Takato. "But last night when I showed up to help Rika, I could have sworn that she was getting up off the ground and holding her shoulder like she had been hurt." Renamon eyed the goggle-wearing Tamer carefully.

Ryo turned to Takato and frowned. "I thought that you said that she didn't show any signs of being hurt, or that you had a very good view of the battle field either."

Takato sighed. "Well, I didn't. I just can't help but shake this feeling that… hey. Renamon. You were there last night, right next to Rika. Did she get hurt last night?"

Renamon chose her next words carefully, not wanting to lie to her friend and ally, but not wanting to break her promise to Rika either.

"I can't say," was all she said, and apparently Takato took it as a negative.

"Well, so much for that. Maybe it's no big deal, but I still think that we should try and look for that digimon."

Ryo and Henry nodded.

"I'm with you on that, Takato," said Henry.

"I'll put in an extra patrol tonight after my Dad has gone to sleep," said Ryo. "Besides, it might be a good idea. Knowing Cyberdramon he'll need some fresh air and could probably go with a good fight."

"I hate to point this out to you," said Terriermon. "But he's Monodromon right now…"

"Yeah, but he does have the habit of digivolving unexpectedly every now and then. Things can get kind of rough when that happens."

Takato nodded. "I'll do some patrolling later too. Hey, maybe Rika would like to join us when…" Takato stopped when he noticed that Renamon had disappeared.

"Oh, okay. Well, I guess that she's gone back to check up on Rika."

"Forget about her chumly. Let's go get something to _eat_! I'm starving!"

Laughing, the five Tamers and digimon got up and left Guilmon's concrete home in search of a good meal.

* * *

"I can't believe I let you talk me into this…" grumbled Rika as she fidgeted with the long sapphire dress that Jeri had picked out for her.

"Oh, don't complain! You look beautiful!"

Rika glowered at the sock-loving girl. "I don't _care_! For one thing, you _know_ that I don't like dresses, and for another this thing _itches_! I'm not wearing this thing. I don't want to wear dresses _period_!"

"But Rika," began Jeri, giving Rika a cute little smile. "If you didn't like the idea then why did you let me convince you to at least try it?"

Rika blushed lightly and turned away, unable to meet her friends gaze. Even so, she still had an answer for the girl.

"Hmmph! You asked me if I was _afraid_ to do this. How could I not refuse?"

"Really? I thought that it was because you didn't want to pass up the chance to see if you liked looking good for… Takato."

Rika pretended not to hear that part, even though her face flamed a fiery red color.

"For someone who's supposed to be the nice, supporting one in the group you sure fight dirty…"

"RIKA!" Called out a feminine voice that was most definitely _not_ Jeri's. In fact, it was a voice that she recognized all to well. Unable to stop her head from turning in the speaker's direction, Rika could already feel embarrassment flood through her body, starting with her head and sinking into her stomach.

_Oh, no…_

A blonde haired woman with violet eyes and several shopping bags walked up to the pair of girls, a look of sheer astonishment on her face.

"M-Mom!" Stammered Rika. Oh, this was not turning out to be her day at all.

"Oh, Rika! You… you look beautiful in that! But…" Rumiko's face frowned in confusion. "I thought that you didn't like dresses."

**" _I don't_!"** The poor girl exclaimed. This really wasn't turning out to be her day at all. First the dream, then the meeting, then Jeri, and now… _Rrrrgh! I don't **believe** that this is happening to me!_

"I'm only trying out the dresses to see which ones are suitable for burning. This one would have made the list, but I'm afraid to damage the environment if I set fire to it…"

"Rika's got a crush on someone," answered Jeri happily.

"JERI!" Rika shouted, causing a number of customers and store attendants to look their way with raised eyebrows.

As for Rumiko, she was in a state of shock. She knew that this would happen eventually, but it was just… well, she hadn't expected it to be _this_ soon. Even though Rika had come a long way from the sometimes hostile tomboy that she used to be, Rumiko would have thought that her daughter would have fought tooth and nail against establishing relationships of this sort, never mind wearing dresses to try and attract a boy. Ohhh… her little girl was growing up. She couldn't wait to have a talk to her when she got home. Of course, chances were Rika was going to be staying out _very_ late in order to avoid that but… Rumiko laughed inwardly as she began thinking of all the things that she was going to bring up later. Oh, and she wanted to know the identity of the boy who had caught her eye but that could wait for later. No need to continue embarrassing the poor girl any further.

As for Rika, she had taken to hanging her head in shame while blushing greatly. Torn between making a run for it or standing her ground, Rika decided upon the latter when she realized she was still wearing the store's merchandise, and to run out the door now would mean that she'd be busted for shop lifting, however unintentional that it was. Rika glared at Jeri and once again rubbed her shoulder as the memory of the arrow piercing her shoulder came to mind. She considered telling Jeri about it but also decided against that. Her mother was here and she didn't want to worry her.

_Maybe later,_ thought Rika as Rumiko and Jeri exchanged some words of pleasantries and talked about Rika for a bit. Rika stood there and waited for the seemingly endless torture to end, all the while trying to think about ways to torment Jeri for this embarrassing moment. Unfortunately she failed in that regard as once again Takato's face came to mind, and unconsciously Rika's right hand drifted up to her spiky pony tail and let her hair loose. It fell to her shoulders while the two females continued to chatter away. Rika felt a soft smile begin to curve on her face.

* * *

In the digital world a dark figure looked up at the world in the sky, its black wings gliding gracefully on air currents and enabling it to avoid the data streams that constantly swept over the land. Sniffing the air the dark figure with her black angelic wings rose further into the air, aiming towards the representation of the real world.

_Soon,_ she thought. _So very soon, I shall bring discord to the world of humans._

_So very soon._


	7. Chapter 7

Riley sighed in contentment as she rested her head on Yamaki's chest. Both of them were sitting on the couch of his apartment, taking in the peacefulness of the moment as she looked at the engagement ring that the head of Hypnos had bought for her shortly after his proposal. A thought flittered through her mind, and Riley couldn't help but wonder what made him do that. Sure, they had been _dating_ , unofficially (Yamaki would never call their _outings_ that), and had seen each other on and off since the D-Reaper incident, but their work with the digital world and, of course, their own professional positions hadn't made their relationship go very much beyond what it was and into what it should be. There just seemed to be something… _wrong_ here. She didn't know what though. She had dreamed of getting married ever since she was a little girl, and now here was her opportunity and with a man that she loved. But she couldn't shake the feeling that there was something out of place. Something…

"It just seems so sudden," said Riley quietly to herself.

"What is?" Asked Yamaki as he held her.

"This. It's… I never expected this from you."

"That's a bad thing?" Asked Yamaki with a grin. Riley grinned playfully.

"No. It's a good thing. Keeps things interesting. I thought though that with all the work that needed to be done to keep the two worlds separate that we wouldn't have time for…"

Yamaki chuckled lightly. "Well, we can always make time."

Riley smiled and closed her eyes, willing to let the day pass by slowly, but unable to shake the feeling that there was something wrong with all this. Briefly she wondered what the reaction at work was going to be.

That was when something clicked in her mind.

"Yamaki!" Exclaimed Riley as she sat up. "We're supposed to be at wo…"

Riley was silenced when the head of Hypnos placed a finger on her lips.

"It's all right," he said. "I left a message when we got here. I put it under _personal time off_."

Riley raised an eyebrow and looked at the man curiously. For some reason she couldn't shake the feeling that there was something wrong here, but she nodded cautiously. He had to know what he was talking about. He wouldn't risk both of their careers for this.

Would he?

Yamaki relaxed as Riley settled back down, and he thought over the day's events. He frowned mentally. Riley was right about one thing. It had all seemed so sudden. What was the problem though? He did _love_ the woman, didn't he? And she loved him back. They never said it out in the open, mostly because of his own pride and her own respect for him as her immediate superior, but the feelings were there. They were real. So… what was it that was bothering him?

Yamaki felt that the answer to that question could be very important. But as soon as he tried to chase after it, Riley's face filled his mind, and the doubts disappeared like a whisper on the wind.

* * *

Henry was heading towards Hypnos with Terriermon perched on the top of his head, his mind lost in thought. He and the other Tamers had decided to take a break from the search and either head home or hang out for a bit. Ryo had told them what time that he was going to go on patrol after break and, much to his dismay, Kenta and Kazu immediately volunteered to accompany him. Takato was heading back to the bakery with Guilmon to grab a quick bite to eat and let his partner gorge himself on Guilmon Bread, though while the crimson dino saw it as _building up strength_ for the long patrol planned for that evening Takato saw it more as gluttony and threatened him with a diet if he didn't cool down on the eating.

_All is vanity,_ Terriermon would have told the goggle-wearing Tamer, and Henry would have agreed.

As they passed a store filled with active TV sets, a news report that was being played briefly caught their attention.

_"… And in today's news, the sales of chocolates, engagement rings, and romance cards have reached record numbers today. The number of planned weddings has also reached unforeseen…"_

Henry shook his head while on top Terriermon snickered.

"You'd almost think that there was a contagious rash going around, Henry. I gotta say, this certainly gives _Love Sickness_ a whole new meaning."

Henry just ignored his partner's comment and continued walking, his mind trying to focus on the digimon that they had been trying to find all day.

* * *

Renamon stood on the edge of the roof, keeping a close eye on her partner as she and Jeri went down the streets, _finally_ aiming their sights towards Shinjuku Park. Of course, Renamon had already told them that it was likely that the boys wouldn't be there but they didn't seem to mind. It wasn't really important though. Renamon was more focused on Rika. Ever since they had left the store (Renamon still couldn't get over the fact that Rika had actually stepped a foot into that place) Rika had been… _different_. Okay, perhaps that wasn't a good choice of word to describe her since she had been different ever since last night, but this time she was even more so. She would occasionally dissolve into short fits of girlish giggling complete with a red face, and other times she would have a distant look in her eyes as though she was looking at something only she could see. More often than not, this look would precede the giggling and blushing.

In short, Rika was acting like… well, a love struck girl. Renamon didn't know if she should find that disturbing or not.

Not that the old Rika wasn't still buried in there. She still made her presence known, usually when Jeri said something to her involving either Takato or the dress that Rika's mother had bought for the red haired girl (Renamon had just been arriving when she saw the money exchanging hands, and the shock of it had actually caused her to nearly lose her balance and fall into traffic). Renamon sighed a little at that, glad to know that the Rika she knew was still around, even if she was undergoing some bizarre mutation. She had wondered if Rika's change in attitude had anything to do with that digimon that had shot her last night. Perhaps she should break her promise and ask someone. Perhaps Rika's grandmother…

But no. She wouldn't. Not yet, anyway. It's not like there was anything bad coming out of this. Strange and a little disturbing, but not bad.

Even so, Renamon had to admit that she would feel a little bit better if the girl would actually hit someone.

_Well, not really…_ thought Renamon with a small grin, and she phased out of existence.

Rika and Jeri entered the park, heading towards Guilmon's hut to sit and wait for a while, partly because Rika wanted to avoid her mother as long as possible and partly because Jeri wanted to see if Takato was there (she was finding Rika's reactions around the boy _very_ entertaining). As soon as they got there though they found that the place was empty. Rika sighed in disappointment.

"Hmmm…" went Jeri. "Takato's not here…"

"Too bad," muttered Rika, and then her eyes widened as she realized what she had just said. Jeri turned to the other girl and raised an eyebrow.

"What was that, Rika?"

"Nothing. I mean… er… I said, _'good'_. The last thing that I need is to deal with that stupid Gogglehead right now."

_Oh, really?_ Thought Jeri, but decided not to push it. Rika had been through enough embarrassment for one day.

Taking a seat on the ground, Rika looked up at the sky, her mind drifting and unsurprisingly it wondered back to the subject of Takato. She found herself remembering that time in the digital world when Takato had sent a message to her family, letting them know that she was okay. She had been miffed when she found out that he had put _'girly hearts'_ in the note (actually, _miffed_ isn't the quite the right word for how she reacted to it) but she mostly let it slide. She had been deeply touched that he would think of her like that. Of course, he had done the same for Jeri shortly afterwards but still…

Rika let out a long sigh followed by a light laugh that caught Jeri's attention, and the girl looked at her funny before giggling herself. Rika glowered at Jeri.

"What?"

Jeri just shook her head, trying to restrain laughter. Rika's scowl deepened.

"All right, what's the deal? Tell me, Jeri…"

"You," said Jeri, still trying to hold back her laughter. "I've never seen anyone fall as hard for someone as you…"

"I am **_not_** falling for **_anyone_**!" Said Rika harshly; putting emphasis into her words to make sure that Jeri would get the point. Apparently she didn't.

"That's not what you're face says," chuckled Jeri, pointing at Rika, who once again felt that now oh-so familiar heat crawling across her cheeks.

_Terrific,_ thought Rika as she quickly looked away. _Why's this keep happening to me?_

"If I didn't know any better," continued Jeri. "I'd think that you're another victim of one of Cupid's arrows."

Rika froze at Jeri's statement, and not too far away, a certain fox digimon almost fell out of her tree in surprise.

_You don't know the half of it,_ thought Rika. _But it can't be. It's such a stupid idea. Almost as stupid as the idea of me falling in love with Gogglehead._ Rika decided to share those last two thoughts with Jeri, who waved them off and grinned at her.

"If that's true," said Jeri, the grin never once leaving her face. "Then how come your hair's still down? You haven't had it up in its usual pony tail since we were in the store."

Rika could have sworn that she heard Renamon actually _chuckling_ to herself, and she felt her face once again go red.

_Flare up… Ugh. I've gotta get out of here._

Rika got to her feet and proceeded to head down the stairs, not bothering to see if Renamon was following her or not. Jeri watched Rika go with worried eyes.

"Um… where are you going?"

"Away from here. I'm not going to stand around and listen to this any longer. I'm going to go home and…"

"I thought that you wanted to avoid your mother today."

"Rrrrgh…" _Oh, right. Forgot about that._ "Does it matter, Jeri? I'm going…"

Jeri placed a hand on Rika's shoulder, and the red haired girl almost flinched away.

"Look, I'm sorry about teasing you," said Jeri softly. "It's just, this isn't a side of you that we see normally…"

_That's a fact,_ thought Renamon from her hiding spot.

"That's because this _isn't_ normal!" Exclaimed Rika furiously, not wanting to meet Jeri in the eyes.

"But Rika, it's perfectly normal to fall in love with someone. Why do you think that you're an exception to that rule?"

Rika was seriously considering telling Jeri about what happened last night, and her own fears, no matter how stupid she thought they were, as to the reasons behind her actions when Jeri's words once again stopped her.

"Would it hurt so much for you to be in love with Takato?"

That one actually struck a cord with Rika. Whether or not the digimon's weird arrow had something to do with it, that was a question that Rika hadn't considered. _Would it be so bad for her to lo… like Takato?_ He wasn't like her father that was for sure. And despite how they first met Takato had accepted her and stuck by her through thick and thin. Everywhere from IceDevimon to waiting for her to get back to the Arc, despite the danger of being left behind. And how could she _ever_ forget his saving her on Locomon…

All those times that she had hated the idea of being the damsel in distress and there she had been, with her very own _white knight_ ready to rescue her.

Rika closed her eyes, clearly not wanting to think of those memories but unable to halt their momentum.

_I don't believe this. I don't **want** to believe it… but…_

Rika shook off Jeri's hand and walked off, muttering something about needing some space to think. Jeri watched her go with sad eyes.

_Rika,_ thought Jeri. _I hope that you find an answer. Takato's not that bad once you let him in. I hope that you realize that before it's too late…_

* * *

Concealed in the bushes, an angelic figure watched Rika as she strode off with sad eyes.

_I don't understand,_ it thought. _I thought that she'd be happy. Why isn't she happy? I thought that she'd find her hearts desire, but she acts like she doesn't want it…_

Shaking its head in frustration, the angel waited a bit before following after the girl, wanting to understand the reasons behind her sadness.

* * *

Janyu Wong rubbed his eyes in exhaustion as he turned back to his computer screen. Still nothing on that new digimon. Tally had been working around the clock trying to locate it, but she had to deal with an inexperienced hand to help her, so that ate up more time than the actual search itself. Janyu wasn't sure if this digimon was something to be concerned about though, especially since there had been no rampages to make it a threat. All very well perhaps, but not knowing where or what it was was unnerving him. And then there was Yamaki's message that he had finally received…

The man had a magnificent sense of timing that was for sure.

Groaning, Janyu checked again for any updates, but there were none. He was hoping for something that would distract him now. Anything would do really…

"Momentai!" Called a cheerful voice that Janyu recognized all to well.

_Yes, I think that this would do quite nicely…_

Looking up, Janyu saw the face of his son, Henry and his partner digimon, Terriermon.

"Henry!"

"Hey, Dad," said the boy. "Any news on that digimon?"

Janyu sighed and shook his head. "Sorry. Nothing new has developed. We've been kind of shorthanded for this task…"

"Well isn't there something that Yamaki can do?" Asked Terriermon. "Nothing personal, but I thought that he would have been all over this, kicking butt and taking names, even if it meant drafting people from their vacation time…"

"Yes," began Janyu. "Well, that's just the thing. Yamaki's getting married. He's just proposed to Riley this morning."

Henry stared at his father incredulously, blinking his eyes and wondering if he had just heard him right. After a few minutes, the sound of Terriermon dropping to the floor in shock could be heard.

_At least they're taking it well,_ thought Janyu sarcastically.


	8. Chapter 8

"Hang on," said Henry Wong. "Back up and explain that to me again."

Janyu chuckled. "It means exactly as it sounds. Yamaki and Riley are getting married. You know, where they're joined in matrimonial bliss…"

Henry shook his head and ran a hand through his hair. "Sorry. It's just… a shock. I never expected it. He's always seemed like a distant sort of person so I mostly assumed that… well, never mind. That's kind of narrow minded of me…"

Janyu nodded. "Well, you've had no reason too. Like you said, he is distant when it comes to people. Him establishing a relationship, let alone actually proposing to someone is rather unexpected for him, but anything's possible. You and your friends are living proof of that."

Henry grinned as he picked up the still stunned Terriermon from off the ground. "Well, I guess that I'll be heading home now. I only came in to check up on how the search is going for you, seeing as how it's been a bust on our end."

Janyu raised an eyebrow. "Having trouble tracking down the digimon?"

"Yeah. It's almost like it's disappeared. You don't think that it could have gone back to the digital world, do you?"

"It's a possibility, but I doubt it. We would have noticed if something like that had happened, especially since portals leading to the digital world are hard to come by."

"There's always the one back at Guilmon's shed."

"Yes, but there hasn't been any activity there since your partners returned. We monitor that area quite closely so we should know."

Henry nodded in understanding. A portal that led straight to the digital world _had_ to have an eye kept on it.

"Well, I guess that I'll be heading out now," said Henry as he turned and started heading towards the door. Janyu stopped him with a word.

"Henry. When you get home, could you take Susie out to the park so she can get some exercise? I had promised her I would earlier today, but now it looks like I'm going to be working late…"

"Sure Dad. And could you let Yamaki know that I said _congratulations_?"

"Of course."

"Thanks."

Nothing was said between Terriermon and Henry until they reached the streets.

"Whoa," said the dog bunny from his spot on Henry's shoulder. "Yamaki? And Riley? Getting married? Who would have thought…?"

"Terriermon…" began Henry in an annoyed tone, though it sounded forced.

"What? C'mone Henry! Don't you find it just a _tad_ bit unusual? This is Yamaki that we're talking about. The only person alive who's colder than Rika, and I used to think that wasn't possible until I met him."

"Terriermon? Why do you only see the negative side to people?"

"Because it's fun to point out."

"Even though doing so has led you to being hurt in the past? I would have thought that you learned your lesson from the Digimon Queen, but then you had to go and mock Zhuqiaomon when we met him in the digital world and that just seemed to bring you to a whole new level. If I didn't know any better I'd swear that you were a glutton for pain the way Guilmon is for bread."

"Not my fault that he can't take a joke."

"Sure. It's never your fault. It's absolutely his for not being able to reign in his temper and _not_ respond by trying to incinerate us. Never mind that we were breaking into his fortress. Totally unreasonable. Perhaps this would be a bad time to remind you that fiery digimon like Zhuqiaomon are usually the most _ill tempered_."

Terriermon giggled in response. "Maybe Zhuqiaomon should consider taking one of those _anger management_ classes. I imagine it would do wonders for him. That is if he doesn't burn the classroom to the ground."

Henry sighed in exaspiration. There was just no getting through to the little digimon. But then, he wouldn't have it any other way…

* * *

Time passed slowly for the city of Shinjuku as the afternoon stretched towards evening. People still bustled around, going home, going to dinner, or just plain going… somewhere, so long as it was away from the pressures of their daily lives. Time to relax, have some fun. Get away from it all and find comfort. Things would soon become lax, and as the day wound down there was some proof of this emerging.

Sadly, this peace and quiet would be interrupted before the sun had even finished setting.

Takato Matsuki wandered the streets with Guilmon at his side. After everything that Shinjuku had been through he was no longer worried about trying to keep his red dinosaur partner hidden from the public eye. Well, perhaps he should still be worried, but today he didn't feel like stressing over it. Besides, they still had a digimon to find, and he had volunteered to go on patrol around this time. Ryo, Kazu, and Kenta would take over after him but until then…

Takato shook his head. He had kind of hoped that he would have someone with him and Guilmon should things go awry, but Henry was currently babysitting his sister Susie before he could go out and Kazu and Kenta were busy finishing up their homework (surprise) so that they could 'patrol' (for them, it was a euphemism for 'hanging out') with Ryo, who was currently giving his dad some help on some unspecified project involving their new house. _Probably unpacking or something_. Oh well, he didn't really mind. Not with Guilmon by his side. Though, to be honest, he wouldn't have minded it if Jeri was with him…

Takato sighed and hung his head while Guilmon looked at his Tamer in concern.

"Are you all right, Takato?" Asked the crimson raptor worriedly.

Takato looked over at his partner and gave him a reassuring smile.

"I'm okay, Guilmon. I'm just… thinking about things."

"What sort of things?"

"It's nothing, Guilmon," said Takato as he looked away. "Private stuff."

Guilmon cocked his head in confusion, wanting to know more but at the same time not wanting to push the issue. Of course, Guilmon, being the kind of digimon that he was with a naturally inquisitive nature decided to go with the former rather than the latter.

"What kind of private things?"

Takato looked back at Guilmon and shook his head. "I'd like to tell you, boy. It's just… complicated. And I'd like to think about it on my own for a bit."

"Okay, Takato," said Guilmon. "But if you want to talk about it, just remember that I'm here."

"Sure thing, boy," said Takato before returning to his thoughts.

The thing was, he was a little depressed about Jeri, his long time crush. The main reason behind this depression was that, despite everything that he had been through, despite everything that had gone on between them, he had yet to tell the girl how he felt about her. You'd think that after facing down D-Reaper, the Devas, Beelzemon, and a horde of Parasimon telling someone that you liked them would be a piece of cake. Yet for some reason he held back. Takato supposed that this was true for a lot of people who had just discovered love but he couldn't help but feel that his position was unique. In a way it was; not many people had to deal with city-destroying digital monsters on a regular basis.

But still, why did he find it so hard to tell Jeri how he felt about her?

As he mulled the thought over, something caught his attention. His eyes widened in surprise at the sight that was now approaching him.

_Wha…? Um… uh… okay, what the heck is going… on… here?_

* * *

Rika Nonaka strode through the crowds, trying desperately to escape the thoughts and emotions that were roiling through her mind, and failing utterly. Whenever she closed her eyes she saw Takato's smiling face, and it caused her heart to ache each and every time. She thought of the things that Jeri had said to her, of the times that she had with Takato…

_"It's not everyday that you get to meet your dream girl…"_

_Stop it!_ Rika thought fiercely. _This… can't be! It can't! Grrr… Leave it to a stupid digimon to make me fall in love with someone like Gogglehead!_

_"Would it hurt so much for you to be in love with Takato?"_

That thought especially kept coming back to Rika. In fact, her mind kept going back to her entire conversation with Jeri. It had honestly surprised her when Jeri had told her that she wouldn't mind if Rika went for the goggle-wearing Tamer. Heck, Jeri had practically given Rika her blessings, even though she had admitted that she cared for Takato as well.

_That's just like Jeri,_ thought Rika. _Always putting a friend before her own needs and desires. She's a lot like Takato…_

Rika lowered her head as confusion and sadness swept through her. Confusion over feelings that couldn't be real but felt like they were nonetheless, and towards Jeri for stepping aside for her so that she could have a chance at happiness. And sadness; sadness for Takato because she felt that he wouldn't be able to reciprocate her feelings, or even worse (to Rika's currently distraught mental state) not want to.

_Even if what I feel for him was real in the beginning, if it ever had been, he doesn't want this. He's been so focused on Jeri all this time that he doesn't notice me…_

Rika frowned at herself as she felt a ping of jealousy in her heart.

_This is so stupid…_

That was when she noticed Takato and his partner Guilmon walking in her direction. A familiar heat spread its way across her cheeks and Rika felt apprehensive. Not used to the emotion she looked around, desperately hoping to find somewhere that she could escape to, determined to try and avoid the boy until she could figure out a way to come to terms with what was happening to her.

"RIKA!" Called out Takato, stopping her in her tracks.

_Too late now. I can't even pretend that I didn't hear him. Oh nuts! My hair is still down! Rrrrgh… can't do anything about it now…_

Takato and Guilmon walked up to Rika and stopped. Takato was rubbing the back of his head, nervous and a little bit red in the face, which made the girl feel a little bit more relaxed. At least there was _something_ that made him about as uncomfortable as she was feeling right now. Even if it was for different reasons.

"Hey," said Rika in a deadpan tone, trying not to betray any emotion, even though she was sure that her face said otherwise.

"So… um… what are you up to?" Asked Takato, his voice betraying his anxiety. His eyes edged cautiously to Rika's hair before jolting away. _Too quick_ , and Rika noticed.

_What's his deal? It's not like he hasn't seen me with my hair down before. But then, I don't usually have it down as a rule…_

Rika turned away from Takato to hide her blush. "I'm… trying to clear my head. Things have been a little weird for me lately."

Takato cocked an eyebrow at her. "What do you mean?"

"Nothing. Forget about it. What are you up to?"

Takato shrugged. "Just going on patrol and keeping an eye out for that digimon from last night. Did you get everything done for your Mom?"

"Er… yeah. I guess you could say that."

"Oh, okay. Hey, how's Jeri doing? I didn't get much of a chance to talk to her today…"

"She's fine," said Rika a little quickly. "I mean, she was fine when I last saw her back in the park, so I don't know what she's doing now. Um… how are things going between you two?"

Takato's eyes widened slightly before settling into a troubled look. _No point in denying it now I guess…_

"I can't really say," he told her. "I… haven't been able to tell her how I feel about her if that's what you mean."

Rika felt her heart crack a bit at that.

"I really like her," continued Takato, oblivious to how Rika was reacting to his words. "But every time I work up the courage to tell her I… I freeze." Takato choked out a harsh laugh. "Pretty funny, huh?"

"Yeah," said Rika throatily. "Funny…"

Takato heard the odd sound in Rika's voice. He had heard it once before back when their partners were being sent back to the digital world. It was one of the few times that he had ever seen her cry, and granted that had been a fairly traumatic time for her. For all of them.

She was still turned away from him, trying to hide something.

_Is she okay?_ Wondered Takato, cursing himself for being lost in his own sense of self-pity to pay attention to his friend's problems. Placing a hand on Rika's shoulder (a bold move that would have surprised him if he hadn't been so concerned for Rika) he turned her around to find that the area around her eyes were wet. Takato gasped.

"Rika…" he whispered softly. _What's wrong with her?_

At that moment, Rika wanted nothing more than to get away from him. To run and never look back, but for some reason she couldn't find the strength of will to perform that action. Instead she found her arms move on their own accord and encircle the boy before crushing him to her in a hug.

"Gogglehead…"

Takato was shocked, but returned the hug in an attempt to comfort her. He had to admit that it was kind of weird, thinking of Rika as being vulnerable like this. Normally she was so strong and sure of herself and now here she was, showing him a side that he didn't think really existed. It was kind of strange. And nice, but mostly strange. He patted her on the back, awkwardly, and wondered why she was acting this way towards him and not with Renamon. And where was Renamon for that matter?

* * *

Renamon watched the scene, her heart souring with happiness that Rika was opening up to Takato. She still wondered what it could have been that brought about such a drastic change in the girl (Jeri's comment about Cupid was certainly helping to make the picture clearer but she was still unsure about it) but she was glad that it was having an affect on her.

_Rika,_ thought Renamon as she watched the pair draw back from each other, their arms still wrapped around the other. Rika seemed to be saying something to Takato. _Why is it always during moments such as this that your barriers break down? First with IceDevimon, then with Parasimon… why must you strive to keep your heart hidden from those who love you?_

Of course, Renamon got no answer. But at that moment, she saw an angelic figure on the rooftop across from her, aiming what looked like a bow with a familiar pink colored energy arrow towards the couple. With no time to leap over to the other roof and stop it she instead phased out of existence, appearing next to Rika and Takato.

* * *

The angelic figure aimed at the boy that was being held in the girl's embrace. She was _so_ sad. He could feel her pain in his heart, and he wanted desperately to make it better. That's what he wanted for everyone.

Fortunately he knew a way.

_Oh yes,_ thought the angel. _I'm going to make it **all** better for you. Just wait and see…_

* * *

Rika drew back from Takato and looked into his oddly colored eyes.

_Red, a rare color… just like mine…_ she thought before noting his wristbands, which matched the color of her partner much the same way that hers did Takato's. She thought it odd that she would notice something like that. She was trapped in his presence, and she didn't think that she ever wanted to be pulled away from it. Unconsciously she felt herself being drawn towards him, her eyes closing and her lips parting slightly.

* * *

Takato waited for Rika to say something. Anything. But she didn't. She just stared at him for a moment before she began to lean towards him, her eyes closing as she did so.

_What is she…?_ Began Takato in confusion, but was interrupted as Renamon pushed them both to the side, interrupting the moment and, thus, saving Takato from being hit by what looked like a pink arrow. Rika stumbled against him, and her weight, combined with his sudden loss of balance, made them both fall to the ground with Rika on top of him. The girl looked him in the face as she suddenly became aware of her position and what she had just been about to do.

Rika's face turned bright red as she pulled away from him and got back to her feet. Whirling around towards Renamon she was about to demand an explanation when a digital field sprung up.

_Oh, this is just terrific,_ thought Rika. _Perfect timing…_

_Never a dull day around here,_ thought Takato as he stood back up, his face feeling more than a little bit warm at what had just transpired. He pushed aside the thoughts that were just coming to mind in order to focus on the task at hand. A wild one was coming through, and that required all of his attention if it was going to prove to be dangerous.

There was a sound of pavement tearing, and a figure roared up from out of the ground. The two Tamers narrowed their eyes to get a better look at the digimon that had just come through, but it did no good. Renamon and Guilmon however were not hampered by such visual problems as a mist and the two Tamers brought out their digivices and activated the scanning program. They soon got their results.

**Erimon**

**Stage: Ultimate**

**Type: Virus**

**Special Attacks: Flames of Discord, Spear of Rage**

The mists parted, revealing an angelic, dark-winged humanoid with long, spindly arms and viscous, clawed fingertips. In one hand the digimon, clearly female, held a dark colored spear with a point as black as obsidian. She looked at the two humans with her crimson eyes, and snorted contempt for them.

"Humans," she said disdainfully. "Run along now. My gift to you. I don't have time to baby sit _children_."

Rika's eyes flashed as her hands reached for her D-Arc and deck box. That comment got her ire up, and she was ready to dish out some trouble. And if this digimon's entrance and speech was any indication so was she. Time to walk all over her…

Rika drew a card and slashed it through her digivice, and Renamon's body glowed as a blue colored data sphere surrounded her.

"DIGI-MODIFY! MATRIX-DIGIVOLUTION ACTIVATE!"

M-A-T-R-I-X D-I-G-I-V-O-L-U-T-I-O-N

Data stripped off of Renamon's body and reorganized itself into a new form, first settling into the familiar pattern of a quadruped, nine-tailed fox before rearing up onto her hind legs. More data was added and the tails vanished as her body became more humanoid.

"RENAMON, MATRIX DIGIVOLVE TOOO…"

" **Flames of Discord!"** Shouted Erimon as she threw a fireball towards the data sphere, interrupting Renamon's digivolution and shattering the sphere. Renamon fell to the ground with a cry. One that was matched by Rika's.

"RENAMON!" Shouted Rika as she ran towards her fallen friend. Erimon smirked.

"So… you're Tamers, are you? What luck. I have a bit of a _soft_ spot when it comes to making time with your kind. I think I will stick around after all."

Erimon rose into the air and readied her spear, aiming it towards Rika.

" **BIOMERGE ACTIVATE!"** Shouted a voice. Erimon took a quick look, not liking what the sight entailed.

"Whoops. Change of plans. **Spear of Rage!** "

Erimon threw the spear towards Takato and Guilmon as they were enveloped in a glorious light. The spear transformed into a bolt of black lightning, striking the data sphere that was forming around the pair. Takato and Guilmon screamed in agony but fought to maintain the digivolution. The sphere of data completely enveloped them and turned dark blue.

"GUILMON, BIOMERGE TOOO…"

The data sphere shattered, and from it emerged a knight digimon with gray and blue armor, and a fiery glow in his eyes. He pointed a lance of the same color at Erimon and finished his declaration of evolution.

"CHAOSGALLANTMON!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Erimon is a playoff of Eris, the Greek goddess or discord, or disharmony and chaos. I had initially wanted to make her a champion level digimon, but decided to up her threat level so in order to necessitate Takato's biomerging (especially since WarGrowlmon would be a little too big for dealing with a digimon of this sort).


	9. Chapter 9

Yamaki and Rielly were still inclined on the couch at Yamaki's apartment, though now they had opted for watching TV and having a sort of 'romantic' dinner that mostly involved take out food in an attempt to unwind and reflect on certain feelings. Every so often they would look at the other and reminisce. Yamaki himself couldn't believe that he had gone through the changes that had brought him to where he was now. Once he had been a hard, cold-hearted person whose only desire was to destroy the digital world, and now… now he had a great deal of respect for the digimon that inhabited that other plain of existence. Much like the Nonaka girl he had opened up, and now he had found true happiness with the one woman that he loved…

A pang of doubt crept in Yamaki's heart. There was something wrong about all this. True, he did love Riley but something seemed _off_ this time.

_"It just seems so sudden."_

That was it. That was the thorn in his heel. Rielly was right. It _had_ been too sudden. What convinced him to go through with that? He didn't even have a ring or anything. He just happened to be down on one knee when she showed up and then… it was almost as though he had been _inspired_ to do that. Yamaki thought back, wondering what it was that had caused him to propose marriage before he was really ready.

Yamaki chuckled. _Who really is ready for that kind of thing? Maybe I shouldn't worry about it._

But the thorn continued to be a pain for his thoughts.

_Pain._

A light bulb clicked on upstairs as Yamaki suddenly remembered a brief pain in the back of his leg just prior to his proposal. It probably wasn't anything except what came with age, but the timing was suspicious. And given his line of work…

Yamaki frowned. _Why is it becoming so hard to think right now?_

And that was when the phone rang. Getting up with a sigh, and receiving one from the red haired woman as well, Yamaki paused the movie and answered the phone.

"Yamaki." The man listened for a moment, and his face became grim as he received news that he _didn't_ want to hear. Especially today of all days. "I'll be right there," he told the caller and hung up. Riley sat up and looked at the man that she loved.

"What's going on?" She asked. Yamaki looked at Riley, his expression not changing once.

"We have a problem."

* * *

Yamaki wasn't the only one who knew that there was a problem. Henry Wong and his partner Terriermon saw the digital mist spring up and quickly leapt into action; The fact that that action entailed running towards the sight of the fog barrier didn't seem to bother the boy, though a certain long eared digimon decided to complain.

"Hen-ry!" Complained Terriermon from the Tamer's shoulder. "Remind me again why it is that we're running when you could either biomerge or digivolve me to Rapidmon? We could be there a lot faster that way!"

"Terriermon…" growled Henry as he halted and drew a blue card from his deck box. As much as he hated to admit it, Terriermon was right. That was something that he should have done right off the bat. He guessed that he was still a bit worried about not attracting the attention of any bystanders when he went off to do battle. Old habits died hard.

Henry slashed the card through his D-Arc, and a glow surrounded the rabbit-dog digimon as he leapt into the air.

"Now that's more like it," giggled Terriermon as the affects of evolution began to take place in his data. "TERRIERMON, MATRIX DIGIVOLVE TOOO…"

* * *

A wind swept through the streets as Erimon suddenly began to feel a little uncertain. Of all things that she had expected, it hadn't been this. She had encountered a fair number of digimon over the years that she had existed, some powerful, some not but they all shared one thing in common: they were recognizable digimon.

This one though, she didn't recognize it at all.

The digimon, while very far from being the largest digimon that she had encountered (it was shorter than a Greymon) but there was a strength and power in its form that surrounded it like an icy aura, and the red glow in the digimon's eyes told a tale of shadow and hardship. For the first time Erimon felt her blood run cold.

It had the appearance of a knight. Gray and blue armor decorated its body and it sported a large shield and a lance that looked viscous and deadly. Behind it, a great blue cape billowed up from the wind. Slowly, like an executioner at the guillotine, the digimon known as ChaosGallantmon raised its lance as though in salute to his opponent before pointing it at Erimon. The mistress of discord could have sworn that she saw wisps of cold air coming from his mouth guard.

ChaosGallantmon lunged at Erimon, and the winged digimon dodged the attack by jumping into the air, somersaulting behind the dark knight and re-summoning her spear with the aim of stabbing the digimon in the back. It didn't work out that way.

Spinning on a dime, ChaosGallantmon smashed his lance into Erimon's skull, sending her into some parked cars on the side of the street. She quickly tried to recover, but soon found herself staring at the tip of a gray colored lance, just as it was powering up an energy blast.

**"Demon's Disaster!"**

Erimon screamed in agony as the attack hit her point blank, blowing her off of the street and destroying the remnants of the car that just moments ago had served as a cushion of sorts and slamming her into a building, creating a sizable hole in its structure. Erimon felt certain that ChaosGallantmon hadn't used his full strength on her. If she was any judge of power (and she was) that attack should have blown her clean through the building and shattered its foundations. Looking up into the dark knight's eyes, Erimon saw faint amusement in his eyes, hidden behind the cold rage that seethed within the digimon's heart.

_So… he wants to toy with me does he? Very well, let's play…_

There was a flash of light, and ChaosGallantmon stepped back, raising his shield. The light that surrounded Erimon turned black and contracted, and Erimon stepped forward in all her glory. Dark armor adorned her form while one hand lengthened and great claws erupted from her fingers. In her other hand, her spear's blade lengthened in size and was inscribed with digi-code upon its surface. This was what Erimon called her _Battle Mode_ , and she didn't bring it out for just anybody. On her own, she was as powerful as several Ultimates, but when she donned her armor she became nearly as strong as the famed Lucemon was said to be.

"Well?" Asked Erimon smugly. "What are you waiting for? Let's dance!"

ChaosGallantmon responded by leaping towards Erimon, striking out with his lance.

**"Demon's Disaster!"**

Erimon bashed the lance aside before lashing out with her claws, actually causing sparks to fly with the blow as ChaosGallantmon was knocked off his feet. Laughing dementedly Erimon rose into the air and began to gather dark energy around her, forming it into a sphere. It crackled and hissed as she brought it above her head, preparing to throw it at the dark knight. Below her, on the ground, ChaosGallantmon was charging up his shield. Erimon smirked and waited. She wanted to show him what she could do.

**"Judecca Prison!"** Shouted ChaosGallantmon as a blast of dark energy burst from his shield's surface and lashed out towards Erimon. Erimon narrowed her eyes and blew a gust of wind out of her mouth, and the attack disintegrated into data particles.

"It's too bad that you have to wear that silly visor, ChaosGallantmon," gloated Erimon. "I would have loved to see the look on your face when I did that. Oh well, you can't have everything. **Dark Discord!"** And with that, Erimon hurled the dark energy sphere at ChaosGallantmon, and it exploded on the ground before him, throwing him several feet into the air. Not losing her smirk, Erimon dove towards the Mega digimon, bringing back her spear to deliver the finishing blow. Victory was hers.

* * *

Rika had watched with wide eyes from the moment Takato and Guilmon had merged and become ChaosGallantmon. The transformation had surprised her beyond belief, and she could only watch dumbly as she held Renamon while the dark knight battled it out with his adversary. Her mind registered the fact that this was a corrupt evolution of Takato's and Guilmon's regular form, and she wondered just what the dark knight was going to do when he was finished mopping up with Erimon.

Unfortunately it now looked like the question was about to become moot as Erimon first changed into a different form and proceeded to beat the snot out of ChaosGallantmon. Rika had taken a quick check of Erimon's stats when she had changed, and didn't like what she got.

**Erimon/ Battle Mode**

**Stage: Ultimate**

**Type: Virus**

**Special Attacks: Dark Discord, Chaos Orb, Primal Spear**

_Oh this is just great,_ thought Rika as she lowered her D-Arc and stood up. She looked over at Renamon, who was also getting to her feet. The two partners exchanged a nod and Rika raised her digivice above her head.

**"BIOMERGE ACTIVATE!"**

There was a burst of light, and Rika felt herself transform into pure data before merging with Renamon.

"RENAMON, BIOMERGE TOOO…"

Renamon bypassed all her digivolved forms of Kyubimon and Taomon before losing her kitsune features, becoming more human like in appearance. Long silvery hair flowed behind her and she was garbed in a black colored suit. Flame like spirits appeared and merged into her, forming golden armor, gloves and boots. A golden facemask reminiscent of a fox adorned her face, and she held a bronze staff with rings at its tip, standing stiffly at attention before settling down.

"SAKUYAMON!" Finished the shaman digimon in the dual voices of Rika and Renamon. No sooner did the light of evolution fade, Sakuyamon jumped forward, bringing about her staff and slashing it around her. Rings of violet light tore through the air and smashed into Enrimon.

**"Amethyst Mandala!"**

Enrimon grunted as the data type attack hit her hard and she was knocked to the side. Even though she had type advantage, Sakuyamon was on a higher level. Didn't matter though. One Mega or two, she was still stronger than them.

**"Chaos Orb!"** Shouted Erimon, and around her, several fiery spheres materialized before shooting at Sakuyamon, who attempted to deflect them with her Crystal Sphere barrier, but to find that it was in vain as the attacks shattered her shield and collided with her. Sakuyamon fell with a cry, but was quickly struggling to get back to her feet.

_I will not lose,_ thought Rika fiercely as her unyielding spirit came into play. _Takato needs me!_

Regaining her footing, Sakuyamon raised her staff. **"Spirit Strike!"**

Four fox spirits of fire, water, wind, and lightning materialized and rushed towards Erimon, who simply swatted them away with her clawed hand contemptuously.

"Please," Erimon said in a voice that sounded bored. "Is that all you can do? Allow me to show you what **true** power is. **Primal Spear!"**

Slashing with the blade end of her spear, Erimon released a crescent shaped energy wave that raced towards Sakuyamon who gracefully jumped out of the way, releasing another Spirit Strike attack as she did so, and this time ChaosGallantmon joined the frey.

**"Demon's Disaster!"**

The combined attacks crashed into Erimon, kicking up smoke and fire from the attack, but as the smoke cleared the two Megas found their opponent unscathed.

_Wha…? No way…_ thought Sakuyamon. She didn't get a chance to continue her thought, because Erimon's whole body was now surrounded by black flames that licked greedily at the air, as though they were anxious to be let loose.

**"Dark Discord!"** Shouted Erimon and the flames burst out, enveloping Sakuyamon and ChaosGallantmon and sweeping them aside. Sakuyamon summoned her Crystal Sphere in an attempt to protect herself, pouring all her strength into it as the fires continuously beat at the barrier. Sweat poured down her face, and briefly she wondered how ChaosGallantmon was faring.

Finally, the dark flames subsided and Sakuyamon lowered her shield, almost collapsing as she did so. Holding back that attack had taken a lot out of her, and from what she could see, ChaosGallantmon wasn't any better. His armor was burnt and cracked in multiple places and the crimson glow that had been in his eyes wasn't as strong as it had been. Data leaked from the cracks in his armor in worrying amounts, but he struggled to his feet so that at least was a good sign. Hopefully.

Erimon watched the two digimon with silent amusement. She was actually impressed that they were still alive, especially the Sakuyamon since she was at a type disadvantage. Erimon had deleted Megas with that attack before, so it was a surprise that the shaman hadn't been destroyed.

**"Demon's Disast…"** Began ChaosGallantmon but Erimon interrupted his attack with Chaos Orb, knocking the dark knight to the ground and blowing off a portion of his left shoulder guard in the process. Without missing a beat Erimon hit Sakuyamon with a Chaos Orb attack and then gathered energy for another Dark Discord.

That was when something caught her attention.

_Now there's a familiar data signature,_ thought Erimon as she turned her head. She saw an angelic figure flying away and gaining velocity as it did so. Smiling, Erimon spread her dark wings and without bothering to look back at the two fallen Megas she flew off in pursuit of more interesting prey.

* * *

Henry and Rapidmon were just arriving onto the scene and took in the situation. Sakuyamon was kneeling on one knee, trying to catch her breath while Gallantmon…

_Hold on,_ thought Henry. _That's not Gallantmon._

Except, it clearly was with the exception of a difference in coloring the armor and weapon style was identical to that of the red and white Mega known as Gallantmon. Henry wondered what had happened that caused the change.

If that was Takato that is, and not some other digimon that by some strange twist of chance just happened to look the same. Torn between the desire to see what the deal was and chase after the digimon that had just finished tearing up the streets with them, the digimon that looked like Gallantmon did something that made up his mind for him.

* * *

A fury burned within ChaosGallantmon, and was slowly building up towards a bonfire. When Erimon turned and left without finishing the fight, the proverbial Camel's back broke and the dark virus Mega howled with thwarted rage. Staggering back to his feet, ChaosGallantmon brought up his battered lance as he charged it up once again. He would bring her back and make her fight…

"Takato…" called a soft, female voice behind him, and the dark knight stopped. Lowering his lance he turned around to see the Sakuyamon watching him cautiously. That name that she had called him… it sounded… familiar…

The dark knight snarled as he felt a red haze settle over his mind. That name… he hated it! Hated it with all his being, and for it to come from the Sakuyamon…

A memory came to him of the shaman saving him. How _dare_ she? It had been his fight! She would pay for her interference.

_No!_ Cried a voice from within ChaosGallantmon's mind, but the dark Mega silenced it and aimed his lance at Sakuyamon. Energy crackled around the tip and burst forth. Sakuyamon dodged the attack despite the exhaustion that was numbing her body and mind. Unfortunately she didn't have the energy to respond in kind to the attack.

But, fortunately for her, there was another who was more in the condition to do so.

**"Rapid Fire!"**

Two missiles streaked from the sky and impacted into the weakened ChaosGallantmon, but he wasn't down yet. Turning in rage in the direction of the unexpected attack, ChaosGallantmon growled as he brought around his lance once more.

**"Demon's Disas…"**

"DIGI-MODIFY! POWER ACTIVATE!"

**"Tri-Beam!"**

Ka-Boom!

That did it. A green colored energy triangle smashed into the dark knight, and with a scream of pain and thwarted rage Chaos Gallantmon fell and parted into two distinct forms. One was a boy wearing yellow trimmed goggles and the other was a dark colored dinosaur with a hazard marking on his chest.

Sakuyamon rushed forward and knelt beside Takato. Cautiously, as though she was afraid she would hurt him, she laid a hand on his shoulder and rolled him over.

_He's still breathing,_ thought Rika, relieved as she carefully picked him up into her arms. Henry ran over to them and Rapidmon landed next to them. Henry sounded like he was trying to get her attention, saying something about getting them to Hypnos, but in Sakuyamon's mind, Rika wasn't listening. All that mattered at that moment to her was the unconscious boy that she held cradled in her arms. Unconsciously, she brought a hand up to his face, brushing some hair out of his eyes before gently stroking his cheek.

The rest to her was silence.


	10. Chapter 10

Ryo was sitting in his bedroom, sorting through his cards with Monodromon next to him humming quietly to himself, not wanting to bother his Tamer. The boy wanted to have some quiet time before they hooked up with Kazu and Kenta later, and that was going to require a _huge_ amount of patience. Of course, that was an exaggeration. Ryo could easily take Kazu and Kenta's hero worship without any trouble, but it was more of the principle of the thing than the reality itself. Monodromon understood this and respected Ryo's desire for a little peace and quiet to himself. Given the sort of things that they all went through on a regular basis this didn't come as a surprise to the purple dinosaur.

Ryo laid a modify card over a Greymon card, his face set in a frown as he thought over the combination. That was when his D-Arc went off. Picking it up, Ryo took a look at it and smiled lightly, while sighing at the same time.

"Never a dull day around here," the Legendary Tamer said as he got to his feet.

* * *

Kazu, Kenta, Guardromon, and MarineAngemon were at the playground in the park, sitting underneath a large, purple, dinosaur sculpture. Kazu and Kenta were playing the Digimon card game for the hundredth time in their lives, with Kazu beating the tar out of his poor friend as usual.

"Hey Kenta…" began Kazu evilly as he drew a digivolve card and slapped it onto the field, followed shortly afterwards by an Andromon card, bringing an appreciative noise out of his machine partner sitting next to him. "… I win!"

"Ohhh…" began Kenta as he slumped in defeat. MarineAngemon said something to the boy in that weird language of his and Kenta smiled lightly. "Thanks buddy. I'll be okay though."

Kazu shook his head in disbelief. "I still don't understand how you know what that little _fairymon_ says. I mean, he only speaks three words and only bothers to mix them up on occasion…"

Kenta laughed and scratched the back of his head nervously. "Like I've said before. He and I have a special bond. We think a lot alike so it makes sense that I would be able to understand him."

"PiPuPi," said MarineAngemon proudly before following it up with a couple _Pi's_ and a loud giggle. Kenta looked at his partner and frowned.

"MarineAngemon, that wasn't very nice."

Kazu glared at the tiny Mega. "Is he insulting me again?"

Kenta sweat dropped. "Uh… er… no. He's not. It's just that he's…"

"You're a terrible liar Kenta. I wanna know what he sai…"

The two boys were interrupted by the sound of their D-Arc's going off and they whipped them out with practiced ease.

"Looks like we'll have to save this for later. C'mone Guardromon! Let's move out! Kenta… move you're freight, already!"

Biting back a reply the two boys and their digimon took off towards the source of the signal.

* * *

Ryo flew through the air while sitting on Cyberdramon's shoulder, scanning the city for that familiar fog like barrier that usually came with a digimon's emergence into the real world. He didn't see any mists, but he _did_ see smoke billowing up a ways off, which counted as just as good an indicator as any as to where the digimon was most likely to be. Chances were, some of the other Tamers were already there and dishing it out with the Wild One. Grinning, Ryo urged Cyberdramon to hurry and the digimon replied with a growl. As they closed in, they saw a winged figure erupt from the smoke and fly off, moving with such speed that one would think that the devil was biting at its heels.

"Cyberdramon…" Ryo began but at that moment another figure, similar in appearance soared out of the smoke and gave chase to the previous one. Ryo's eyes followed them and he had a feeling that it was best to go after them, Relaying orders to Cyberdramon to do so the Ultimate level digimon course corrected and went after them.

* * *

The first winged digimon that Ryo had seen was indeed in fear for his life. He knew the digimon that had smashed the two Tamers with such ease, and he wasn't in the mood to be in her way when she really decided to go to town on them. Unfortunately for him, in his bid to escape he had caught Erimon's attention, and given that she had shifted into her battle form it was only a matter of time before he got caught. What was a mon to do?

Reaching over his shoulder, the flying digimon drew a pink arrow and fitted it to his bow, waiting and counting as he prepared himself for the battle that he was sure was going to follow.

* * *

_I can't believe that digimon crossed over to this side,_ burned Erimon. _He's going to make my job a **lot** harder. With his ability to purify viral infections and spread… **love** … around he's the perfect digimon to counteract my powers. It's a good thing that his abilities are useless against me but… hmmm… perhaps this is actually a blessing in disguise. If I can destroy him than I'll be free to spread chaos without having to worry about some balancing force keeping me in check. Yes… I like the way that sounds._

Smiling to herself, Erimon summoned a golden sphere in the palm of her hand and took aim at her adversary.

* * *

Ryo took note that the one digimon was preparing an attack and he quickly took out his D-Arc and analyzed her. Not happy with the stats that he was getting he decided it was best to try and take out this digimon first before dealing with the other one. Besides, the other digimon was going to great lengths to get away so it couldn't be that bad, and like the old saying goes, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Well, he wasn't sure if the other one wasn't an enemy either but he felt that it was easier to go against the aggressor before he had to deal with the one that was on the retreat. Slashing a speed card through his D-Arc Cyberdramon made a swift dive to drop Ryo off onto the streets before racing towards Erimon. Bringing his claws together, azure energy began to form between his palms and he aimed it towards the dark winged digimon.

**"Desolation Claw!"** Shouted Cyberdramon as he fired off a blast of energy at Erimon. The attack struck Erimon on her back, greatly surprising her as she nearly lost her flight. Turning with a growl, Erimon threw her Chaos Orb attack at the offending Cyberdramon, thinking that it would be enough to take him out. She didn't expect the Ultimate to suddenly throw up a WarGreymon shield and deflect the attack before flying in for a close range attack.

**"Cyber Nail!"**

**"Primal Spear!"**

Lashing out with her spear, Erimon deflected Cyberdramon's attack and then fired a Chaos Orb attack at close range against the android dragon, blowing him out of the air. Not done yet, Cyberdramon threw the shield that he still carried as though it were a Frisbee. Growling, Erimon shattered it into pieces with a clawed fist before summoning a dark, electrical sphere.

**"Dark Disc…"**

**"Guardian Barrage!"**

The sound of whistling missiles interrupted Erimon's attack, but with an exhaled breath, she blew the missiles away and redirected their course. They flew around, almost as though they were confused as their guidance systems suddenly went awry, and they soon exploded in mid air, doing no damage to their initial target. Hissing in rage, Erimon's sight settled on a Guardromon with a visor-wearing boy sitting on his shoulder.

_Idiot child,_ thought Erimon as she flew towards the Guardromon and readying her Dark Discord attack.

And then there was an obstruction.

* * *

Sakuyamon and Rapidmon flew through the air, leaving the scene of devastation behind them as they headed towards Hypnos to drop off Takato and… well, what _looked_ like Guilmon except for the fact that his coloring was off. Now he was mostly black colored with red stripes, and it worried Henry and Rapidmon. Sakuyamon probably could have voiced her own worries if she hadn't been so focused on Takato's condition. Henry looked over at Sakuyamon from his position next to Guilmon in Rapidmon's arms. The shaman digimon hadn't said a word since _Gallantmon_ had reverse digivolved, but instead seemed unusually focused on the condition of the Tamer that she now held in her arms rather protectively, as though she was afraid that he would wake up at any moment and try to escape. Henry shook his head, wondering just what was going through Sakuyamon's mind right now. Sure, she was no doubt worried about Takato. Heck, he and Rapidmon were as well, but Sakuyamon…

There was definitely something about the way she held and looked at him that seemed to suggest more.

Oddly enough, as if to make things even weirder, Rapidmon hadn't brought it upon himself to make a comment about it. Henry looked to the side and saw what looked like Cyberdramon and Guardromon going at it with the strange digimon from earlier. He shouted to Rapidmon to hurry up so that they could pitch in and the android Ultimate picked up his pace a little, speeding by Sakuyamon.

_I could really use a 'momentai' right about now,_ thought Henry as he ran a hand through his hair.

* * *

Rika, in Sakuyamon's form, held Takato's form tightly, not really paying attention to where she was going as she left that job to Renamon. The kitsune digimon was being unusually quiet for some reason but that was okay. Rika really needed some private time to sort through her thoughts and feelings right now.

It was kind of weird in her mind that she was holding Takato right now. Mostly because of the strange, warm feelings that the act was generating, and it brought back the memory from when she had been about to…

Rika shook her head in her data sphere, trying to get rid of those thoughts and failing. She looked at Takato's face. His eyes were closed, and he looked… peaceful. Rika felt as though she could watch him that way all day.

_Takato…_ she thought and she tightened her hold on him.

The Hypnos Towers were fast approaching.

* * *

**"Kahuna Waves!"**

Erimon actually stopped in surprise as a heart shaped bubble raced towards her. It couldn't be _that_ threatening, but if her instincts were any indication it was. An unconscious fear awoke in the bottom of Erimon's soul and with a shriek she dodged the attack, only to have it followed up by a swarm of the annoying little valentines. Each one burst near her released a pink aura that burned her whenever it touched her.

_How?_ Thought Erimon furiously. _How is it able to harm me when all those other digimon couldn't do a thing against me? I must…_

**Pop!**

A red heart burst on Erimon's face, sending her into another bout of screams that forced every digimon and human nearby to cover their ears in pain. Windows cracked and shattered under the intense sound. Erimon, no longer aware or even caring that the attacks had ceased launched herself into the air in an attempt to escape. She flew higher and higher, before summoning a digital field and vanishing into it.

Kazu lowered his hands from his ears, and looked in the direction that Erimon had disappeared in.

"Man, that digimon is crazier than a Catfish…"

"Craz-zier than Catfish," agreed Guardromon.

"Guardromon…" growled Kazu.

* * *

Rapidmon landed on the ground and unceremoniously dumped _Guilmon_ and Henry to the ground and looked at his Tamer expectantly as he waited for further orders. Henry pulled out his D-Arc to check up on his friend's progress, and realized that the Wild One's signal had disappeared. Henry sighed in relief.

_That must mean that they had destroyed her. Now all we have to worry about is how Takato and Guilmon are doing._

Henry looked to the side in time to see Sakuyamon land and glow with the light of reverse digivolution, parting into the forms of Renamon and Rika. By some unspoken decision, Rika somehow appeared sitting on the floor, still holding Takato in her arms and not taking her eyes off of the boy. Henry walked over to tell her that they had to get him inside, but one look at Renamon told him that this wouldn't be a good idea at the moment.

_Besides, it looks like we're about to be getting some company anyway,_ thought Henry as he saw that their arrival had caused some commotion among the employees that were in the Hypnos lobby.

* * *

_Takato was surrounded by pure darkness. There was another presence with him. It snarled at him, and brushed up against him every so often in a contemptuous way but did not try to harm him. It felt more as though it looked on him as a means towards an end, and the presence felt… familiar too. Disturbingly familiar._

_In front of him, a light appeared, and grew stronger. The darkness around him gave way before it, but did so grudgingly. The area around him began to take a familiar shape similar to the canyon that he and the others had been in when they had gone to the digital world. He was holding tightly to some kind of rope that felt like strands of hair, and he vaguely remembered something about Henry telling Kazu that only a warped mind like his could think of climbing down on Azulongmon's beard._

_The light in front of him grew stronger, and from it emerged the familiar figure of Sakuyamon. She floated towards him; light emanating from her in such a way that it was almost painful to look at. Sakuyamon approached him, a smile on her face._

_"Takato…" the shaman began, and suddenly the goggle wearing boy felt that he remembered something like this happening before, like déjà vu. That was when he noticed that his body suddenly felt heavier, as though it were covered in armor…_

_Curious, Takato looked at himself and found that, yes, he was garbed in the familiar armor of Gallantmon, only it was the wrong shade. Gray and blue instead of the white and red that he knew that it should be. And the presence from earlier…_

_With a snarl, Takato found himself leaping off the side of the canyon and against his will, forming his lance on one arm, drawing it back and aiming it towards Sakuyamon._

_"NO!" Takato shouted from within the depths of his mind, but unable to stop himself quickly enough. "RIKA!"_

* * *

Takato snapped awake, and the face of Sakuyamon and all its light, was replaced by Rika Nonaka, framed perfectly against the light of the days last minutes of sunset. Takato registered the fact that she was holding him in her arms, and that her face was looking at him worriedly with her hair down. For the first time, it actually occured to him that she was... beautiful. Against his will, Takato found himself blushing a deep crimson, and he opened his mouth to speak.

"Rika…" he began but he didn't get a chance too finish, because no sooner then did the words leave his mouth that Rika leaned towards him and covered his lips gently with her own. Takato's mind immediately went blank with shock as Rika pulled him closer.

Nearby, Terriermon, having regressed from Rapidmon, collapsed to the ground with a resounding thud.

Renamon chuckled.


	11. Chapter 11

The angelic digimon with the bow had watched the battle between the Tamer's digimon and Erimon in awe. From a safe distance of course. He knew how powerful Erimon could be, and he didn't want to be there when she reformatted her adversaries. He was quite surprised when Erimon was sent running from the most unlikely digimon imaginable, a little MarineAngemon.

_But how?_ Wondered the angelic digimon. _I know that MarineAngemon's abilities are similar to mine, but my attacks don't work on Erimon. So why was his able to?_

Not finding an answer he decided to hang back for a bit and watch the activities of the Tamers, to see if he could trust them before he made himself known to them. If they were powerful enough to drive away Erimon he didn't want to think of what could happen if they decided to turn on him next. At present they were heading towards the streets where a boy was standing. Trembling lightly, the angel digimon took flight and followed them. Making sure to stay out of sight until he felt ready to reveal himself to them.

* * *

Yamaki pulled up to the side of Hypnos and both he and Riley got out of the car. Heading for the entrance they found three of the Tamers were already there with their digimon. There was Renamon, Terriermon, and…

_Why is Matsuki's digimon a different color?_ Wondered the head of Hypnos as he looked over at Riley and indicated Guilmon with a nod of his head. The red haired chief operator looked at the dino and shrugged.

"I don't have a clue Yamaki," she said. "We'll have to get those answers from the Tamers. If we can."

Yamaki nodded and brought out his lighter. Whatever it was that was going on, he had an idea that he wasn't going to like it.

* * *

"Ooog…" began Terriermon as he opened his eyes groggily and looked over at his Tamer, Henry Wong. "Henry? I had the most bizarre dream. Almost a nightmare in fact. In it, we fought a dark version of Gallantmon and a strange digimon. Then we had to take Guilmon and Takato to Hypnos to see if they could get help, and then… I saw Rika kiss Takato when he woke up. Weird huh?"

"Um… Terriermon?"

The dog-bunny looked at his Tamer curiously. _Why's he look so nervous?_

"… It wasn't a dream."

Terriermon turned his head towards Rika and Takato's direction. Sure enough, Rika was still kissing Takato, and not in the way that could be called _'just friends'_ (although, Takato's reaction looked as though he was just as surprised as Henry and Terriermon). Takato was getting it full on the lips, and by the looks of things she had been at it for longer than five seconds and showed no desire to be stopping anytime soon either. Terriermon looked over at Renamon to see how she was taking it. Oddly enough, she didn't look at all surprised and… _was that the faintest hint of a smile on her face?_

It was all too much for the poor rookie, and he fainted dead away once more.

"Oooh…"

Henry sighed, feeling really tempted to throw in a _momentai_ for his friends sake.

Henry really couldn't blame Terriermon for passing out again. To be honest, he felt a little off kilter enough himself to join him. Fortunately his martial arts training combined with his pride as a Tamer wouldn't let him so he was basically left with staring incredulously at his friends, and wondering how long he could go on like that before he snapped back to reality.

And that was when a hand landed on his shoulder and did just that for him. Turning, Henry found himself face to face with the renowned Head of Hypnos known to the Tamers and coworkers as Yamaki.

"All right," said Yamaki, getting down to business in that gruff manner of his that was his trademark. "What's the situation?"

Henry blinked as his mind began to settle back down.

"Takato and Rika encountered a Wild One a little while ago. I didn't get the stats for it but I'm sure that they did." Henry indicated his two friends who were _still_ locked in a passionate kiss. Henry absently wondered just how long it would be before Rika let the kid up for air. That is, if Takato even remembered how to breathe. He still showed no signs of coming out of his shock. Yamaki looked at the pair and raised an eyebrow but decided not to comment on them. Wasn't his business anyway. Riley walked up to stand next to her fiancé and saw the two and soon she too arched an eyebrow.

_These kids today are growing up so fast,_ thought Riley but said nothing as she brought her full focus on Henry as he picked Terriermon up from off the ground.

"What about Takato's digimon?" Asked Yamaki.

Henry scratched the back of his head worriedly. "I have no idea about how that happened. I didn't get there to see that part. Terriermon and I showed up just in time to see a dark colored version of Gallantmon about to attack Sakuyamon so we… uh… had to take him down. The digimon that they had been fighting got away but I think that it had been intercepted by the others and was destroyed."

"I see," said Yamaki. "I'd better get you some assistance in getting Takato's partner into Hypnos and have him checked out." Pulling out his cell phone, Yamaki began to dial some numbers. Henry looked back and forth between Yamaki and Riley. Looking at them you'd think that they weren't planning to get married.

_Well, maybe they just want to keep this on a professional level,_ Henry thought. Turning to Riley, Henry offered her a small smile.

"By the way, may I congratulate you two on your engagement?"

Riley's eyes snapped up at Henry, and the telltale signs of a blush covered her face. Yamaki looked in Henry's direction, his shades hiding the fact that he too was looking at the dark haired boy, but the uncharacteristic smile that curved on his face said otherwise.

_Janyu,_ thought Yamaki. _I should have known that you say something._

"Thank you," said Riley. "Though I'm sorry that it had to be on a day like this, but _Mr. Bossman_ here had to choose this morning to propose." Riley grinned and elbowed Yamaki, shedding a layer of professionalism as she took a moment to poke fun at her _husband-to-be_. Yamaki said nothing, but his smile grew. Slightly.

Henry nodded. "That's okay. Today just seems to be that kind of day for it." Looking over at Rika and Takato he once again smiled. Yes, it certainly seemed to be that kind of day for it. He certainly hadn't been expecting _this_ , though he had to admit that he thought that it would be kind of funny if this did happen ever since that moment down in the tunnels when they were going off to fight the D-Reaper and Takato had made some comment about Rika's shirt. That was a very weird moment and he had put it out of his mind so that he could focus on the task at hand at the time, but every now and then he had to wonder…

Henry frowned as something clicked in his mind.

_"Today just seems to be that kind of day for it."_

_"You'd almost think that there was a contagious rash going around, Henry. I gotta say, this gives **love sickness** a whole new meaning."_

Briefly he recalled a news report that he and Terriermon had overheard from a television store. Looking over at Renamon, he met the kitsune's gaze and a suspicion began to form.

_Didn't Takato say something about how he thought that he saw Rika get hurt last night when a digimon bio-emerged? The same digimon that we spent all day looking for right before we ran into that other one? I wonder… could it be possible that…?_

Henry ran a hand through his hair and groaned in exasperation. It was a strange thought, one that he couldn't believe that he had thought of, but then that was why Rika called him _Braniac_. He tended to think outside of the box, which is why he had come up with the idea about the Devas being representations from the Chinese zodiac. Which was why now he was wondering if that digimon that Rika had encountered last night had done something to make her fall in love with Takato.

He couldn't help but wonder if the same was with Yamaki and Riley.

_But… didn't Renamon say that Rika didn't get hurt? Wait a second… now that I think of it, she didn't say that Rika wasn't hurt. She just said that she **'couldn't say'**. _

Henry took another look at Renamon, and decided that now was as good a time as any to have a talk with the vulpine digimon.

* * *

Rika's lips met Takato's tenderly at first, as though she were afraid that this was just part of the dream that she had had earlier in the morning, but as she held the kiss and felt her body flush and come alive with a feeling that was like an electrical current she knew that it was real and as a result she deepened the kiss. She did note his lack of response to the attention that he was getting and chuckled inwardly.

_I'll bet that he never expected to live to see this coming,_ she thought. It was strange. She had been worried about the Gogglehead after what had happened to him and after seeing what had happened to him when Erimon had attacked him and Guilmon Rika had actually been afraid that she would lose her Gogglehead. That was something new. Well… perhaps not. She remembered a similar moment when in the digital world he had gone over to his fallen partner after he had digivolved to Megidramon and Beelzemon was preparing to gun them down. And then there was that time when he, as Gallantmon, had been pulled down into the red blob that had been D-Reaper, and even after that when the army of Parasimon had been overwhelming him, right before his mode change…

_Enough with the memories,_ thought Rika. _I'd miss him if he were gone. Stupid Gogglehead…_

In her mind though, she knew that the feelings that this kiss was generating were a product of a deranged digimon with a Cupid mentality, and she felt strangely saddened by this knowledge.

* * *

Takato stirred as he finally began to get a grip on himself. The first thought that came to mind was _'this is it. Rika's finally lost it'_ followed shortly afterwards by another thought that wasn't that far from the truth. _Either that or a digimon's taken control of her again._ His entire body felt very, _very_ warm and he could tell just by the amount of heat coming from the face of the girl kissing him that she too was suffering a similar fate. How it was she was able to keep this up without pulling away and/or hitting Takato seemed to be beyond Takato at this moment. This wasn't something that he would have expected from Rika. Well, maybe towards someone else like maybe Ryo (the way that those two bickered like an old married couple it honestly wouldn't have surprised him that much), but him?

_Oookay… what's wrong with this picture?_

Good question. Takato thought some more.

_And… why do I feel so… strange?_

Granted, he knew that it had to be because there was a girl, a very pretty girl, kissing him, and as such it was awakening feelings in him that he normally felt towards another girl.

Takato couldn't help but take irony in the fact that at this very moment, he was _literally_ kissing his _dream girl_.

A sound caught his attention, and grateful for anything to break up what was fast becoming an awkward moment for Takato he looked in its direction and saw…

"Gmlmn!" Takato began to squirm a little now, thinking that Rika would let him go. He should have known better. Instead the Digimon Queen tightened her grip on him some more and broke the kiss briefly.

"Shut up, Gogglehead," growled Rika right before she crushed her lips to his again.

"But, Guil… mmmph!"

"Rika…" began Henry from behind the couple. Something in his voice brought Rika back and she once again broke the kiss and looked at Henry. Realizing that there were more people around them now, some of whom were now helping a dark colored Guilmon onto a stretcher and getting ready to wheel him into Hypnos she helped Takato to his feet. Both of their faces flaming intensely. Takato glanced briefly at Rika before walking over to Yamaki and asking him what was going on and if his partner was okay.

"We don't know yet," said Yamaki. "We're going to have him under observation for the night, and have some of our people take a look at him. We'll know more in the morning but for now I think that you should go home and get some rest. We'll let you know if something more comes up."

"But, Yamaki," began Takato. "Can't I at least stay with him? He's my best friend."

"I'm sorry Mr. Matsuki," said Yamaki, shaking his head. "But there's nothing you can do right now except wait. You've done your job now let us do ours. We'll have an answer for your friend and maybe a solution as well. Trust us." Yamaki laid a comforting hand on Takato's shoulder as though it were a pledge, and Takato, after a few minutes of deliberation, finally nodded reluctantly. Yamaki returned the nod and turned and followed the Hypnos technicians and Guilmon inside the building, with Riley pausing long enough to give the boy a sympathetic glance. Takato watched them go sorrowfully, wondering just what it was that had happened to Guilmon. Takato tensed as he felt a hand clasp itself around his and he turned to see that it belonged to Rika. She was looking at him with an expression on her face that matched his own.

"Don't worry, Takato," said Rika softly as she gave his hand a soft squeeze. Takato swallowed before nodding, trying to ignore the feeling of butterfly's that was growing in his stomach.

* * *

The other Tamers showed up at Hypnos shortly afterwards, having already been at the sight of the first battle but after having found no one there Ryo deduced that Hypnos would be the next most logical place to check next. There they got a brief explanation of what had happened (with Henry, Takato, and Rika not saying a thing about the _moment_ between the last two. Not even Terriermon who had woken up by this time, surprisingly), and in return Ryo, Kazu, and Kenta told them that there was a strong possibility that the digimon that they had fought would be back for another round. Ryo volunteered to be the bearer of bad news to Yamaki on that front (with Kenta and Kazu stepping up to the plate to join him, but Ryo somehow managed to convince them otherwise). That was what was on Takato's mind while he walked home. Guilmon, the Erimon, and of course… Rika.

Takato stopped as the door of his home and looked up at the sky with tears in his eyes, his mind awhirl with confusion at the day's events. Uncomprehending as to how so much could happen all at once. He should be used to this sort of thing. He dealt with digimon on a regular basis but this… this was completely different. This wasn't something that he could fight, couldn't go at directly.

_Rika… Guilmon…_

Takato bit down the pain that he felt from it all. The confusion over Rika, the worry over Guilmon and of Erimon. Takato held onto the hope that it would all be okay in the end.

The stars in the night sky twinkled, as though in response to the boy's silent plea.


	12. Chapter 12

Henry didn't go home right away like his other friends did. He had decided on wondering in the park for a bit and do some thinking. He needed to get his thoughts in order for when he had to meet Renamon once she saw Rika home. Yes, Henry had tried to have a talk with the kitsune digimon earlier, but she had politely declined on the grounds that Rika was there. However, that did not close off the possibility of arranging a meeting for later, so they arranged for a time and place to go to and now Henry had to kill some time until Renamon showed up. On his shoulder, Terriermon stirred restlessly.

"Rika… likes… Takato…" the dog bunny whispered in awe. Henry groaned.

_Ohhh… not this again_. Terriermon had been in a state of shock ever since he had seen the fiery red head lock lips with the Tamer that she occasionally referred to as _Gogglehead_. Henry wasn't sure as to what stunned him more actually. The fact that Rika had actually done that or the fact that Terriermon wasn't tripping over himself to be cracking jokes at her and Takato's expense.

_I guess that there are just some things that you don't see coming soon enough to prepare for. I mean, it was pretty obvious to all of us that Takato liked Jeri, but Rika liking Takato? Even I'm having trouble wrapping my mind around it. That, and this crazy idea of mine that it may have been a digimon that caused her to be like that. Dad's right, sometimes I think too much for my own good. Maybe this is just a stupid idea and it might be best to leave well enough alone._

But he couldn't just leave it alone. Henry's mind was just far too inquisitive to do that sort of thing. He had to know what Renamon knew. If he could just make a connection then perhaps he could solve this puzzle that was bothering him.

_Though it seems so minor a problem when compared to all the other things that have happened to us._

Henry sighed and shook his head, causing Terriermon to look at his partner worriedly.

"What's up Henry?"

"Lot's of things Terriermon."

"Like what? Care to share? And why are we out here anyway? I would have figured that we'd be home by now, but instead your taking a detour through the park?"

"I asked for Renamon to meet me here after she got Rika home. I have to ask her some questions."

Terriermon tapped his chin in contemplation. "Okay, I give up. What sort of questions do you want to ask Renamon? Don't tell me that you're going to ask her out on a date or something, 'cause I don't think I can handle any more weirdness today! I mean Rika kissing Takato was bad enough…"

"TERRIERMON!" Shouted Henry in frustration. "That's **not** what I wanted to ask her!"

Terriermon giggled mischievously as he hopped up onto his partner's head. "Momentai, Henry. Mo-men-tai."

"Hrrrmmm…"

They continued in silence for a moment longer.

"So… what do you want to talk to her about?" Asked Terriermon.

"Well, it's mostly about Rika…"

Terriermon suddenly laughed. "Why? Jealous that she decided to latch onto Takatomon instead of you?"

Henry's right eye began to twitch. "Terriermon…" he began warningly.

"Momentai Henry. I didn't mean it. But seriously though, are you jealous?"

"NO!"

"Okay, okay. Sheesh. You don't have to be so assertive about it."

"It's not just about Rika, Terriermon," continued Henry. "It's also about Riley and Yamaki too."

"But why, Henry? Granted, two icy people falling in love in one day is the last thing that I would have expected but…" suddenly Terriermon stopped as a light bulb clicked on upstairs.

"You don't mean…?"

"Remember when we heard that news report earlier today?" Asked Henry, finally glad that his partner was starting to put the pieces together.

"That's crazy though! Well, actually, probably not. At least when I think about everything that's already happened today, it actually makes sense. Henry, you're a genius!"

"Terriermon…"

The long eared digimon giggled. "Oh, this is _so_ going to make for good material when this is all over. I can't wait."

Henry groaned in exasperation, unsure as to whether he should feel sorry for Rika and Takato for having to endure Terriermon's reminders of their little _moment_ , or for Terriermon once Rika got her hands on him.

After some thinking he decided to go with the latter.

A familiar yellow furred kitsune digimon suddenly materialized out of nowhere in front of the duo, bringing Henry up short in his walk.

"Renamon," Henry said. "Glad you could make it."

"Yeah," said Terriermon, chuckling. "I was afraid that you wouldn't show up because Rika might insist on taking a side trip down to Takato's house."

Henry sighed. "Just ignore him. Anyway, I wanted to ask you some questions about Rika."

Renamon nodded. "I know. You said as much back at Hypnos. I take it that this is about her _new found interest_ in Takato?"

"In a way. You see, a lot of strange coincidences have been popping up lately, each of them sharing similarities to how Rika's acting, and… I can't believe that I'm actually thinking this, but I couldn't help but notice that all of it seems to start after that digimon from yesterday showed up."

Renamon remained silent, obviously waiting for Henry to continue.

"If it was just Rika, that'd be one thing, but it's not just her. It seems as though the whole city seems to be affected by whatever's going on."

"Yeah," said Terriermon. "Yamaki proposed to one of his coworkers this morning."

"Yes," said Renamon in a flat tone. "I overheard."

"Not much that gets by you, is there?" Asked Terriermon sarcastically.

"This… seems so… I don't know," said Henry. "Confusing I guess. Maybe I'm wrong, but I've got to know one thing. Earlier today, when Takato asked you if Rika had been hurt you said that you _couldn't say_. Does that mean that you don't know if she was hurt? Or did she make you promise not to say anything about it?"

Renamon just looked at the boy, her face not betraying any emotion. Even so, she was impressed.

_Smart boy,_ thought Renamon. _But then I always knew that he was. Even though I promised Rika, I don't see any harm in telling him._

"Well… Rika _made_ me promise not to tell, but if you feel that it's important…"

"It's just a weird theory," said Henry. "And I'll need more proof, but if there's anything about you're encounter with that Wild One that you haven't told us about then we should know."

"Yeah," piped in Terriermon. "Rika's pride aside, I don't want to have to fight this thing blind."

Renamon paused for a moment. "Earlier today, before Erimon bio-emerged, Rika ran into Takato."

"What's that got to do with yester…?" Began Terriermon, but Renamon interrupted him.

"While they were _talking_ , I saw a strange digimon aim an arrow at Takato and try to shoot him with it. He would have gotten hit if I hadn't been there to push him out of the way."

"Oookay," said Henry a little confused now. "Do you think that it was the same digimon from yesterday?"

"I believe that it was. The attack that it used was the same as the one that I saw yesterday."

"Okay," said Henry. "That clears up some things, but you still didn't answer my question. Did Rika get hurt by that digimon?"

"Yes," said Renamon, feeling a little pained for having to break her promise to her Tamer. "She did get _attacked_. She had been struck by the same arrow that the digimon had tried to shoot Takato with earlier, but she showed no signs of being hurt."

Henry furrowed his brow in concentration. "That doesn't necessarily mean anything though. A digimon's attack can come in all kinds of forms. Like Lillymon's Flower Wreath."

"True," Renamon agreed.

"Well, I guess that's all for now," said Henry. "I don't have anymore questions to ask…"

"Ooh! Ooh!" Exclaimed Terriermon. "I have one! I have one!"

Renamon looked at the little dog-bunny. "Yes?"

_Why do I have the feeling that I'm going to regret bringing him along?_ Wondered Henry.

"There's only one way for me to be one hundred percent convinced that Rika is under some evil digimon's control. Though to be honest, kissing Takato certainly goes a long way towards proving that theory…"

"Terriermon," said Henry. "Just get to the point."

Terriermon giggled. "I'm just curious. If Rika's really being made to fall in love with Takato, does that mean that she'll start eyeing dresses now?"

It turned out that this was one of the rare moments that either Henry or Terriermon had ever seen Renamon look surprised about something. Terriermon felt his heart grow cold.

_Sheesh. And I had only been kidding…_

* * *

Silhouetted against the moonlight, an angelic winged digimon looked up at the night sky, and wondered.

_Erimon… I know that you'll be coming back. Why did you follow me? Is it because you're supposed to be the balancing force for my powers? But if that's the case, why did you try to destroy me? It goes against the rules that we had agreed upon when we were first created. Things aren't supposed to be this way…_

But he knew that over the years Erimon had grown increasingly… chaotic. Of course, it was her nature to be that way, but lately she had been getting worse. The acquirement of her Battle Mode had been a testament to that. Erimon was getting out of control, and with that loss of control came an increase of power. Power that she used against those around her. He had thought that her change had been as a result of the affects that events in the human world had upon the digital world (as the two did overlap from time to time), and hence his and Erimon's personalities. He had hoped that by coming here he could heal it and her at the same time. It was what he was made for after all, but instead Erimon remained unstable and for some of the people that he had _helped_ , things only got worse for them. They either experienced pain or caused it in others.

The digimon, known as Eromon, the representation of love, shook his head in confusion before spreading his wings and flying out into night.

* * *

Rika Nonaka lay on her futon, staring up at the ceiling, feeling worried. About what exactly she couldn't say for sure, or perhaps didn't want to say. The feelings of uneasiness that she was currently experiencing were directed, more or less towards a certain goggle wearing boy by the name of Takato Matsuki. Now that she was away from him her mind had begun to clear a little, and she began to question some of her actions during the day.

Namely, that kiss that she gave him.

_Why did I do that? Ugh, stupid question. I know **why** I did it even if it sounds stupid. _ Reaching over, Rika rubbed the shoulder that just yesterday had been pierced by the arrow that started this whole mess. _The real question that I should be asking myself is, did I do the right thing? Takato doesn't need this right now, not after what happened with Guilmon. Sure, I'll admit that it made me feel better, even **if** it's that stupid arrow talking but still. Jeri's the one Takato likes, and now this comes up. How's he going to handle it? I hope that he doesn't get too worried about this. Rrrgh... This is… so embarrassing. I don't know if it would be worse if I did this of my own free will or getting shot by a stupid cupidmon's arrow._

Rika felt her body flush and she turned over onto her side as she thought about the boy. She wondered briefly how it was that Guilmon changed the way he did.

_Could it have something to do with when Erimon attacked them when they were biomerging? The attack that she used was called **Spear of Rage**. I wonder if that has something to do with it._

An image of Takato's face, filled with sadness and confusion over the plight of his friend entered her mind, and Rika couldn't help but feel the same pain in her heart.

_Takato,_ she thought sorrowfully. _I'm so… sorry…_

With tears brimming in her eyes, Rika drifted off to sleep.

* * *

In the data filled network that lay in between the digital and the real worlds, Erimon floated. Rage filled her dark heart as she thought of the miserable defeat that had been handed to her today. And by a _MarineAngemon_ of all digimon!

_How **dare** they?_

And that hadn't been the worst part either. It was because of the fear that the little pink fairy digimon had instilled in her heart with that attack of his. She had faced down many digimon, each of them with the strength and power to rip apart mountains, level cities, and strike terror into even the bravest of warriors and she had survived them all.

And now for the first time, she was actually made afraid. By one, often overlooked, digimon whose main attack consisted of hearts filled with love that it blew at its enemies.

_Pathetic…_

Data began to consolidate around Erimon until it began to circle around her like a miniature solar system. More data joined it until the data solidified into a sphere.

A sphere that went hand in hand with the process known as digivolving.


	13. Chapter 13

Takato looked at himself in the bathroom mirror and sighed in exhaustion. Last night he had been unable to get any sleep, so at this present time he was looking a little rough around the edges.

_'Course, I always seem to look like a mess,_ thought Takato as he scratched his head through the thick, tangled mess that he called his hair. Takato let out a big yawn as he turned on the sink and splashed some water in his face in an attempt to wake himself up. Today was Monday, and with Ms. Asagi as his teacher for the second time in a row he knew that she was not going to tolerate him falling asleep in class. Again. Well, actually she would, but only on occasion. Since she found out that he was a Tamer she had been cutting him and Kenta some slack (though Kazu she still ragged on like there was no tomorrow), but that by no means meant that she appreciated him catching up on his beauty sleep. _Sleep is for home,_ she would say, and then remind the goggle-wearing Tamer that if he was tired then perhaps he should go to bed earlier.

_Try telling that to the digimon,_ thought Takato as he stepped out of the bathroom and headed back up to his room to get ready for school. In a way, he had hoped that the battle from yesterday would close school, but as things played out he had only been kidding himself. Guess he should have listened to that old saying, _Hope for the best, but expect the worst_. Invariably this led Takato's mind to turn towards the thoughts of his bread snarfing dino friend who was currently at Hypnos going through who knows what? He knew that Yamaki was having his people help out his friend by finding out what was wrong with him, but Takato was worried about what it was that they might find. He had some vague memories of transforming into a darker version of Gallantmon and a dream where he nearly killed Sakuyamon, and neither one really cheered him up.

_Well, at least it wasn't Megidramon again,_ thought Takato gloomily as he finished getting dressed and grabbed the things that he needed for school. After bidding his parents goodbye he opened the door and exited the bakery, closing it carefully so that his mom wouldn't yell at him. He let out another sigh. The only bright side that he could see from having to go to school today was that it meant that he wouldn't have to face Rika for a while. He was still experiencing some shock from her having kissed him yesterday, and the memory of it brought a sliver of red to his cheeks, as well as another flurry of butterfly's in his stomach. He thought of Rika, about how he hadn't once thought that sort of thing would happen between them ( _heck, she threatened me when I told her about that dream I had about her_ ) and, oddly, how pretty she had looked with the light of sunset behind her, and with her hair down. And then he thought of Jeri, and his own feelings for her. She had always been so nice to him, to everyone, and she always found a way to bring a smile to his face even when he was down. He didn't want to lose either of them as friends.

_What if Rika wants it to be more then friendship though? What if I can't return her feelings? Will she still want to remain my friend then?_

Takato chuckled wryly to himself. That was stupid right? Of course Rika would stay friends with him, and same with Jeri. They had all been through so much to just quit on each other like that over something like this, right?

Except there was that one little voice that continued to ask, _what if?_

_Man, why do things have to be so complicated?_

_Rika… Jeri…_

"Takatomon!"

_Huh?_

Spinning, Takato found himself staring at the familiar faces of Henry Wong and, perched on the boy's shoulder, Terriermon. Takato felt a smile grow on his face for the first time that day.

"Hey, Henry."

"Hey," pouted Terriermon. "No hi for me? I was the one who greeted you first."

Takato sighed once more. "Hi Terriermon."

"That's better," said the long eared digimon as he crossed his arms and puffed his chest out proudly.

"Just ignore him," said Henry, even though he really didn't have to remind Takato about that. They were both long used to Terriermon's antics that ignoring him was almost the same as breathing now. "So how are you doing?"

"Fine… I guess."

"You don't really look okay," said Henry. It was true. The kid looked exhausted, and just a tad bit detached from the world today.

"I'm just worried about Guilmon," said Takato. _And Rika,_ he finished in his head.

"And Rika to, I bet," said Terriermon smirking, causing Takato to blush lightly.

"Terriermon…" began Henry.

"What?" Asked Terriermon in mock surprise. "Not my fault that he got the shock of his life yesterday is it?"

"You never know," said Henry mysteriously. "Law of averages…"

"Hey…"

Takato forced a smile as he started walking. Henry and Terriermon soon fell into step next to him.

"So…" began Takato, just to make conversation. "What're you guys doing here?"

"I wanted to check up on you and see if you were all right," said Henry. "I mean, you did have a rough time yesterday."

"Yeah," said Terriermon jokingly. "I'll bet that you never expected to get your first kiss like that. Especially from Rika of all people."

"Rrrgh… Terriermon…"

"Momentai, Henry."

Takato smiled again. "Thanks you guys. I really appreciate it."

Henry smiled back, looked like he was about to say something, and then closed his mouth. After a second he replied, "You're welcome."

* * *

A ways behind the three friends stood a boy wearing a gothic t-shirt with a cross emblazoned on its front, and he wore a visor around his head. Next to him stood a massive, rusty colored machine digimon. He looked from them to his partner and back again, wondering why it was that the boy had a stunned look on his face.

"Um… Kazu?" Questioned the robot politely to the visor-wearing boy. "Is there a reason why we're not joining Takato and Henry? I thought that was the point of our being here."

Kazu didn't reply for a second. He couldn't speak, couldn't _move_ in fact. Did… did he just hear what he thought he just heard?

"Kazu?"

"Guh," said Kazu finally as he fought off a wave of dizziness, and blinked away the black spots and bright sparkles that had been swimming in his eyes. "Guardromon? Tell me that I didn't just hear what I thought I just heard."

Guardromon, confused about the strangeness of such a request did so. "Um… okay. You didn't just hear what you thought you just heard."

Kazu groaned in exaspiration. "Guardromon… I didn't mean it literally."

"Oh."

* * *

The day went by slowly for Rika as she stared up at the clock on her classroom's wall with a bored look on her face. Her teacher's voice droned on about something. She forgot what it was as she wasn't paying attention. Oh, well. She was sure that it wasn't important anyways. At least, not as important as Gogglehead right now…

_I wonder how Takato's holding up?_ Rika wondered. _Probably not too good. If I know him he's gotta be wigging out about Guilmon. Wonder if he decided to skip school just to check up on him. Probably not, but if Renamon hadn't persuaded me to just go to school instead of walking down to his bakery to see for myself I wouldn't be wondering. Of course, I suppose that I could have just called him but I would much rather have seen him in person._

_Ugh. I can't believe that I just thought that._

The hand that Rika's head was resting on snaked its way towards her hair and tugged on her pony tail for what had to be the fifth time that day before she stopped and returned it back to its resting place. She really didn't know why she did that, but she was willing to bet that it had something to do with that crazy digimon from two days ago. Rika sighed as she tried to focus on the lesson. Picking up her pencil she began to scribble random notes that the teacher was writing on the board. After a few minutes she stopped as she realized that she had started to doodle a pair of goggles on her notebook paper. Blushing lightly, Rika furiously erased the drawing.

_I can't believe this. I just can't seem to get him out of my head. He always finds some way in. Like with that stupid dress…_

Rika's blush darkened visibly. She still couldn't believe that she had agreed to let her mom buy that dress for her. What was more she couldn't believe that she hadn't burned it yet, but instead had hung it from off her wall so that she could see it when she went to sleep at night. That actually wasn't so bad. What was was that when she had woken up this morning she had nearly put it on, with the intention of going down to Takato's house.

_Thank God Renamon was there to stop me,_ thought Rika in relief, even though she had wanted to see him.

Rika sighed once more catching the attention of one of the girls sitting next to her, who looked at her worriedly.

"Rika?" Asked the girl quietly, so as to not attract the teacher's attention. "Are you all right? You look a bit… red."

Rika looked at the girl, Ari she thought her name was, and raised an eyebrow.

"I'm fine," said Rika a little coldly as she returned her attention to the lesson. Even so, her face darkened a bit more.

"Well, if you're sure…"

"I'm sure," said Rika flatly as she began to take down some notes.

_Grrr… Stupid Gogglehead._

* * *

Takato bit into his sandwich and chewed it over carefully before swallowing and turning to one of the rice balls that his mother had packed for him. He had hoped that today would be a quiet day, but unfortunately it was anything but. Between Terriermon heckling him all the way to school and Kazu giving him odd looks Takato was starting to wonder just what else could happen today.

"ARF!" A familiar sock puppet popped in front of the boy's face, startling him and making him jump to his feet in surprise.

"Aah! Jeri!"

The girl giggled. "I can't believe that after all this time you still haven't gotten used to me doing that."

Takato found that he couldn't meet the girl in the eyes. "Sorry Jeri. I've just… had a lot on my mind today."

Jeri smiled softly as she pulled up a chair next to him, causing Takato to blush lightly.

"Anything that you'd care to share?" Asked Jeri.

"Well… I… don't know. I…" Takato stopped. He wasn't sure if he wanted to tell her about Rika kissing him, but then something else came to mind that he knew that he could talk about. "Well… the thing is, it's Guilmon."

"Oh yes," said Jeri. "Kenta told me about what happened. You shouldn't worry too much Takato, Yamaki and Henry's dad will take care of him."

"I know," said Takato glumly. "But I can't help but worry about him sometimes."

Jeri watched Takato carefully. She noticed that he wasn't meeting her in the eyes. Well, that wasn't anything new. She suspected that he had a crush on her but this was something else all together. It almost looked as though he were feeling guilty about something.

"Takato? Why can't I help but feel that there's something more to this?"

Takato tensed up and his face flushed deeply.

_Oh, yes,_ thought Jeri. _There's definitely something else going on, and for some reason he doesn't want to tell me. I wonder what…_ Jeri's eyes widened slightly as a thought occurred to her. _No. I wonder **if**. I wonder if this has something to do with Rika._

Jeri reached over and clasped Takato's right hand and gave it a comforting squeeze. Takato blushed even more, and he began to look a little bit frantic.

"Takato," began Jeri soothingly. "Whatever it is that's got you worked up like this, you shouldn't bottle it in. It's better if you just let it out. You know that you can tell me anything." She gave Takato a comforting smile.

"Jeri…" began Takato as he closed his eyes and clutched the sides of his head. "I… last night… er… I… didn't… that is… uh… I mean…" Oh, God! His face felt so hot right now, and his ears were also burning up in embarrassment. He just couldn't get it out. He couldn't stop stuttering.

_Come on, Matsuki!_ Takato berated himself. _You can tell her, can't you? Tell her that you didn't mean it! Tell her how you feel you stupid Gogglehead! Just… oh man… I… I can't tell her. I… I… Aw nuts. I could really use a miracle right now._

And as luck would have it, a miracle did show up. Though not the one that he would have expected.

"Hey, Chumley!" Shouted Kazu as he walked up and caught Takato in a headlock. "Spill. What's this that I heard this morning about you kissing Rika?"

_Thank you, Kazu,_ thought Takato, feeling strangely relieved for a second that someone had said what was on his mind, but only for a second. _Wait. Whaaa…?_

Takato was very confused now. How did Kazu hear about it ( _probably Terriermon,_ he mused)? And more importantly, why was Jeri smiling at him as though she had been expecting this?

* * *

Yamaki entered Hypnos and raised a questioning eyebrow at Janyu and indicated a bald, bearded man that was standing next to him.

"Not that I'm very surprised, but may I ask what he's doing here?"

"Nice to see you too, Yamaki," laughed the bald man with the beard that the Head of Hypnos recognized as Gorou Mizuno. Or as he was better known to his friends and colleagues, the Monster Makers, Shibumi.

"Tao here gave me a call. Said that he thought that I could help him with Mr. Matsuki's friend."

"Can you?"

"Well, I've been analyzing the data that Tao's collected from Guilmon so far. Looks like he's been infected by a virus that's shifted him to his darker evolutions…"

"Can you fix him?" Demanded Yamaki a little harshly.

"Not all the way right now," said Shibumi. "But I believe that I can put something together that should make him okay until we can restore him fully. Of course we'll need Takato here to make sure…"

"I can contact his school and have him sent here," said Yamaki.

"No. It's not necessary right now," said Shibumi. "I still have to get it ready, and that won't be for a while. It should be set though as soon as he gets out of school."

"How convenient," said Yamaki. "Best get started now. I'll leave you to it."

Yamaki turned to go, but Shibumi's voice stopped him.

"By the way, may I congratulate you on your engagement to Ms. Riley?"

Yamaki withheld a growl. He was really going to have to have a talk with Janyu about that.

"Thanks," said Yamaki, and he left the room, leaving the two Monster Makers to their work.


	14. Chapter 14

Outside of the Shinjuku elementary school, sitting on a tree branch with a small smirk on his face, sat a short rabbit-like digimon known as Terriermon. He was currently watching the scene in the school cafeteria unfold as Kazu walked up to Takato and gripped the goggle-wearing boy in a headlock and asked him something that made Takato's already red face darken even more. In front of them sat Jeri Katou, looking like she was holding back a giggle. Terriermon had an idea as to what was going on between them. He had seen Kazu and Guardromon coming up behind Henry and Takato when they were on their way to school this morning. It was the perfect opportunity to spill the beans without really spilling them. Terriermon chuckled lightly to himself.

"Poor Takato," said Terriermon. "I don't know whether I should feel sorry for him or not."

"Tell me Terriermon," spoke a familiar cool, feminine voice from above him. "Do you take some kind of perverse joy in other people's misery?"

"WAAH!" Shouted Terriermon in surprise as he nearly fell off the tree branch. Regaining his balance, the dog-bunny looked above him and glared at a certain kitsune digimon.

"Hey, Renamon?" said Terriermon shakily. "Do you take perverse pleasure in scaring helpless digimon?"

Renamon didn't answer him. Instead she phased down onto the branch that Terriermon was sitting on and took a look into the window.

"So," began Renamon calmly. "How is Takato handling things?"

"About as well as anyone under the circumstances," said Terriermon. "What do you expect? Guilmon's just been through an ordeal and he doesn't know if he'll be okay, and then there's the fact that Rika kissed him. To be honest, I'm surprised that last bit hasn't sent him running for the hills. It's kind of creepy."

Renamon decided not to respond to that part.

"Has Henry told him about his theory?"

Terriermon shook his head. "Nope. He doesn't want to get Takato's hopes up if he turns out wrong. Looks like Takatomon is going to have to tough it through Rika's affections or die trying."

Terriermon looked worriedly at the vulpine digimon and laughed nervously. Even though she didn't show it, he was sure that at the rate he was going he was only a hairs breath away from getting punted all the way to Shinjuku Park.

_I can't help it though,_ thought the little bunny. _This is just so funny…_

Renamon turned to face him. Terriermon blanched a little, fully expecting the worst to happen.

"Tell me, Terriermon," said the kitsune. "What do you know of human relationships?"

_Huh?_

"You're asking me?" Said Terriermon a little dumbfounded. "How am I supposed to know? I mean aside from Henry's parents and his older siblings I can hardly call myself an expert on matters of the heart. All I know is that love tends to make people act weird."

Renamon looked back at the scene in the cafeteria. Takato had now hung his head and Jeri looked like she was trying to consul him, while next to them Kazu stood, shaking his head as though in disbelief.

"I remember that before this, quite a number of months ago Rika had made some strange comments about Takato's love life. It was on that day where Shinjuku was selling a large number of _heart-shaped_ items…"

"It's called Valentines Day, Renamon," said Terriermon, and then something clicked. "Wait. Rika talked about Takato's love life?"

Renamon nodded. "She had been walking through the park when she saw Takato and Jeri exchange those cards that are customary for _Valentines Day_. Rika then said that she always knew that _'Gogglehead_ _would go for the girl-next-door type'_."

"Oookay…" said Terriermon. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but are you saying that you thought that she might have been jealous?"

"Perhaps," said Renamon. "But I didn't think anything of it then until Rika had asked me if Takato would notice her if she wore a dress…"

Terriermon nearly fell off the branch he was so surprised. Renamon flicked her tail in annoyance.

"Uh… why are you telling me this?"

"I was wondering if you could help shed some light on Rika's statement. I'm just curious as to whether or not Rika's feelings are entirely the product of that digimon she and I encountered, or if they were simply buried."

"Mmm… I don't buy it," said Terriermon. "Sure, she's not the easiest person when it comes to admitting about feelings, especially after what you and her both went through early in your career together, but…"

"I recall a couple of times how in the digital world she showed more concern for Takato's well-being then the others. Back when you, Henry, and Takato were missing she said something about how everyone was fine, but they'd be more so if they knew where Takato was."

"What does that have to do with Rika liking…?"

"She didn't mention Henry or you at all in that sentence."

Terriermon was speechless for a moment, but he still had one last thing to say.

"Don't you think that you're over analyzing this whole thing?"

Renamon shrugged. "Perhaps. But I only want for Rika to be happy, and if it turns out that she's happiest when she's with Takato then I would like for her to keep that happiness."

"I guess," said Terriermon cautiously. "But then, I would think that you of all digimon would know that this is something that they have to work out for themselves."

Renamon nodded, unsure if she liked not being able to help her partner on this particular battlefield, but she knew that Terriermon was right. This was something that they had to settle between themselves. No one else could do it for them.

_How ironic though,_ thought Renamon as she thought of the digimon that started this whole mess.

* * *

The school day wore on to its destined conclusion as bells rang, signifying the end of classes. Rika Nonaka was out the door a little bit faster than she usually intended and was already on her way towards Takato's school, not bothering to head home and change out of her uniform. For some reason she felt that it was more important to go and see Takato then to worry about her own pride. Once she was clear of the school grounds Rika took off at a run as she followed the street signs and old landmarks that she remembered from when she and the others crashed at Shinjuku elementary during the D-Reaper crisis. As she neared the now familiar school she slowed down to a walk to catch her breath and to rest for a bit. Pride or no pride, she didn't want it to look like she was some amorous schoolgirl like half the twits she knew at school. Besides, she was genuinely concerned about Takato and wanted to see how he was doing since what happened yesterday.

And deep down, Rika was half afraid that he might try to avoid her because of what happened between them.

Rika blushed lightly and kicked a pebble as she waited outside the school's gates as she tried to push her doubts away. Of course Takato wouldn't try to avoid her. Why would he? They were friends right?

_Just not very close friends though,_ thought Rika as she sighed. _Not like he is with Jeri or Henry. Or Kazu and Kenta. Sure, he respects me and trusts me but…_

Rika paused in her musing as she chewed her lower lip, trying to find a way to put down what she was thinking. She wanted to say that they wouldn't be close friends like… the way she was thinking because he was afraid that she'd put him down or something. No. He had long since gotten used to her personality to not have to worry about that so much (even though he still did when she got _really_ angry).

_But he won't see me the way he sees Jeri…_ Rika finished finally, and then she frowned. _Stupid digimon. I can't believe that it's responsible for making me think like this. This is **way** more troublesome then Beelzemon when he was being a snob._

As Rika stood there thinking, a flicker of movement caught her eye and she looked up. Her eyes widened in surprise as she felt her heart skip a beat, and before she could stop herself she called out.

"Gogglehead!"

* * *

Takato exited the school in a fairly confused and tired mood. The day just seemed to be one act of weirdness after another, and still feeling exhausted from last night didn't help much either. Fortunately most of his friends (discounting Kazu, but Henry, Jeri, and Kenta were holding the fort on that front) understood his current situation and even though they had offered their support, they were willing to give him some space for when he needed to sort things out. Things had been something of a surprise today. First Kazu finding out about Rika kissing him, then Jeri…

_Jeri…_

Takato had been stunned to learn that Jeri had known about Rika's feelings for him, and the shock didn't end there either. Jeri had _actually_ encouraged her! Takato felt a little crushed by that. Did that mean that Jeri didn't feel the same way that he did about her? Maybe he should have asked, but then he thought about the sting of rejection that would come if it turned out that she didn't like him. Maybe… maybe he should wait a little longer until he was surer of himself. And _after_ this whole business with Guilmon and Erimon was cleared up. One thing at a time. One thing at a time.

Looking over his shoulder, Takato saw the others were trailing a short ways behind him. He thought about waiting for them to catch up but he still wanted to be alone for a while. And away from Kazu. Jeez, the kid hadn't left him alone about the whole 'Rika kissing him' all day. He had to admit though, it was the first time that he had seen Kenta actually smack Kazu upside the head and tell him to shut up, an act in itself that left all three of them speechless. Takato made a mental note to thank Kenta later.

As Takato exited the school gates he failed to notice the girl who was waiting outside them. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it I guess), she noticed him.

"Gogglehead!"

Takato whirled about, startled, his sneakers catching on the ground and causing him to fall backwards with a heavy thud.

"Ow…" groaned Takato as he rubbed his back in pain.

"Here," said Rika as she held out a hand for him. Takato looked up and found himself blushing lightly. Once again Rika was framed perfectly against the sun, making her almost seem to burn with fire, and…

_Hang on. Is she wearing her uniform? She **never** wears that when she's around us. For that matter, she doesn't come here either, unless Yamaki called and told her to round up the rest of the gang._

"What's the matter, Gogglebrain? I got peanut butter on my nose or something? Get up already. I'm not going to stand here holding my hand out forever you know."

Once again blushing lightly, Takato hesitantly took hold of Rika's hand and she pulled him to his feet, a little too close to her person though and she backed off a bit, a sliver of pink appearing on her face as she avoided his gaze.

"Thanks," mumbled Takato as he too looked away and coughed nervously. He had no idea where to take this now. And as for Rika…

_What do you say to someone that you've kissed?_ Rika cursed herself silently for feeling nervous. She didn't want to be nervous, least of all around _him_ , but she was nonetheless.

"So… um… what are you doing here?" Asked Takato, apprehension plainly evident in his voice. Rika frowned as she turned to her usual 'tom-boy' attitude for help.

"School let out early today, so I came down here to join you and the rest of the clowns for when you went down to Hypnos to check up on Guilmon. And… um… I wanted to see if you were all right." Rika again cursed at herself. That last part had come out a little more softly then she had intended. That, and it sounded awkward to her when it came out.

_Now he'll probably think that I do have a crush on him or something._ Rika blushed again. She just realized how stupid that thought was. Having kissed him last night, and knowing Jeri, chances were he already thought that. Risking a glance, Rika saw that he to was a bit red in the face and looked a little agitated. That, and his eyes wouldn't meet hers.

_Terrific. Now look what you did you stupid digimon,_ growled Rika. _We can't even talk to each other normally. All we need now is for Kazu to just walk up and say something incredibly stupid…_

"Hey, Rika! Don't you know it's supposed to be the Prince Charming who waits for the girl after school and not the other way around?"

_Speak of the devil…_

Rika's eyes flashed dangerously despite the deepening blush that was blooming on her face. She was just about to crack her knuckles menacingly when Jeri scolded Kazu and Kenta, to her surprise, gave a smack upside the visor boy's head.

"Ow…" complained Kazu. "Kenta…"

"Like you weren't asking for it. Just be glad that it's from me and not from Rika."

"At least with Rika I'd be getting hit by someone who's more popular…"

Smack!

"Ow…"

"C'mone guys," said Henry, trying to be the calm voice of reason. "We've got to get down to Hypnos and get an update."

Not waiting to see if anyone would follow, Henry took off in the direction of the Hypnos Towers. Kazu, Kenta, and Jeri hesitated for a second before following. Takato stood there for a second as he watched them leave, uncertainty in his heart. It was one second too long for Rika though and she immediately grabbed the boy by the wrist and began to drag him along after the others.

"Come on, Gogglehead."

Takato complied silently, and blushed.

* * *

Eromon sat on the edge of the rooftop, watching and listening patiently to the strange digimon that he had encountered in his most recent ventures. The creature was very small for what he considered to be an in-training digimon, and was unusually hyperactive and friendly. Most other digimon that he had met in his life weren't as open as this one was, or as strange. The digimon, a small, white creature with large eyes and ears that both shrank and expanded depending either on his moods or if he wanted to fly, identified itself as _Calumon_ , and mostly went on about non-sensible subjects involving things called _cream puffs_ , and _skating on sausages_. But Eromon was still able to have a fairly, _intellectual_ , conversation with the in-training. Even though it claimed to not be able to understand, there were snippets of sentences that actually made quite a lot of sense, especially the relation that Calumon made between being afraid and his _skating on sausages_ analogy. It was actually surprising how much insight Calumon had as to the nature of the human mind. Probably because he was so innocent and didn't really think of things in as complicated a way as everyone else seemed to. And what was more, he knew the Tamers as well. Eromon was able to get quite a lot of information on them thanks to Calumon. Looking towards the Hypnos Towers, Eromon made a decision. Thanking Calumon for his time he bid him farewell and took off into the sky.

Calumon watched his new friend go with sad eyes.

"Oooh… I hope that I didn't make him bored. I was hoping that he'd want to play tag."

A second later, a small, black, imp like creature with a red bandana wrapped around his neck plopped down next to him. Calumon immediately recognized him as his friend, Impmon, and his ears expanded in excitement as he chanted _Impmon_ in conjunction with _yays_. Impmon looked at Calumon strangely and sweat dropped.

"What youse doin' today, Shrimp for brains? Talkin' to yourself again?"

"Nope."

"Oh. Good. Wait. Whaaa…?"


	15. Chapter 15

Ryo Akiyama and Monodromon were on their way to Hypnos when they spotted the other Tamers. Smiling broadly, the Legendary Tamer raised a hand to call out to them and maybe even poke fun at his _Wildcat_ while he was at it, but before he could do that he saw something that gave him pause. Narrowing his eyes Ryo took a closer look at what caught his attention.

_Is it? No way. Couldn't be. Could it? It is!_

Chuckling to himself Ryo scratched the back of his head.

_I'll be… I didn't think that she'd do it. At least not this soon, but she did. Wow…_

_Rika actually snagged her Gogglehead…_

Among the group of Tamers, Ryo's focus narrowed down to the two that were more or less the center of attention. The main focus of Terriermon's constant grinning and, what looked like his bad jokes as well as the magnet for Kazu's constant jeering in their general direction (followed shortly by, to Ryo's surprise, a resounding smack upside the head by his friend, Kenta) were Rika Nonaka and Takato Matsuki. As Ryo looked them over, his grin became even broader as he saw that Rika's hand was wrapped firmly around Takato's in what was most likely a viselike grip. Rika was currently glaring daggers at Kazu and Terriermon, as though she were daring them to say something and give her an excuse to send them to dreamland. As for Takato…

_I can't say that he looks very comfortable right now,_ thought Ryo with dry amusement. It was true. Takato did look uncomfortable. His eyes kept wandering from one place to another, never settling on one spot for very long, and giving quick glances at Rika every now and then, and his face alternated between several shades of red, usually dark. Occasionally he would look at Jeri with confusion in his eyes before jerking away quickly, but not before Ryo saw the look of sadness that was in them. In a flash of understanding, Ryo could feel the anguish that had to be raging in the goggle-wearing Tamer's heart right now.

_Poor guy,_ thought Ryo as his face softened. _Being stuck in a love triangle can't be doing him any favors. I mean I knew that he liked Jeri, but I didn't think that this would affect him this much. But then, I didn't expect Rika to be so open about her feelings either. Usually she'll play games and avoid the subject of emotions like she'd catch the plague from it or something. In fact, I remember Henry telling me about a time where she was having problems with Renamon and it took her forever to admit that she cared about her partner. Heh, poor Takato. His whole world's just been turned upside down. I wonder what Jeri thinks about all this…_

Ryo was broken out of his thoughts as he noticed movement in the sky. Looking up he caught the outline of what was most definitely a digimon, obscured by the light of the sun as it flew towards the direction of Hypnos. More movement caught his attention and he noticed two smaller digimon pursuing rather discreetly. If Ryo didn't know any better he'd say that the two smaller digimon were Impmon and Calumon.

_This looks vaguely important,_ thought Ryo sarcastically as he took a glance at the other Tamers. For some reason none of them or their digimon had taken notice. But then, neither had Monodromon. Ryo considered giving the others a heads up before deciding that it would be best if they just continued on their way and check up on Guilmon. Besides, chances were this digimon was just another Wild One, and with Impmon already on its trail, anything more than one Mega would be overkill. He'd follow just to see if the little demon virus needed a hand and if worst came to worst he'd jump in. And if worst came to even more worst, the others would no doubt catch wind of it and show up. And it might not be what he thought it was either so it might not be worth troubling the other Tamers over it. Grinning, Ryo motioned to his partner and together they moved to pursue the strange digimon in the sky.

* * *

By the time the Tamers made it into the Hypnos main lobby, Takato could be classified as being a nervous wreck. Ryo's assessment of his discomfort may have actually been a little too conservative an estimation but he had been right on the money with Takato's emotional status. Takato felt as though his stomach was being tied into knots. On one hand there were his worries about Guilmon. He couldn't get it out of his head. He kept thinking of all the times where he had nearly lost his best friend; first underneath the tunnels when he had disappeared, his fear when the bread eating saurian seemed to change when he digivolved (this fear ultimately coming to a hideous reality when Megidramon was created), the battles with Beelzemon, the Sovereign, D-Reaper… and on, and on, and on. Sometimes Takato felt like his worries ran like a broken record.

_I'm sure that Hypnos has come up with something to help Guilmon,_ thought Takato, dragging his confidence up and out of the dark pit that it had fallen in. _They've never let us down before since we've started working together, so why should this time be any different?_

Takato's eyes widened slightly as he felt Rika's hand give his a comforting squeeze as they approached the elevator that would take them to the central command of Hypnos. Turning his head he saw Rika give him a small smile before quickly looking away. Takato once again felt his face heat up and his stomach flutter nervously. He still couldn't believe that what had happened between him and Rika in less than twenty-four hours had even happened. He wasn't sure what was the strangest or most nerve racking at this moment. The kiss, the fact that she had her hair down yesterday, her wearing her uniform and showing up at his school to check up on him, or that her hand had somehow found its way into his. It was just so completely out of character of Rika that Takato could almost swear that she had to have been struck by Cupid's arrow or something.

Had his mind been a little bit clearer, and more focused as it was in Henry's case, Takato probably would have seized upon this idea and ran out the door with it. However, since this wasn't the case his mind completely overshot the thought without so much as a second glance.

There was one thing that Takato could say that he was happy about from all this, and it was that Rika was offering him her support for how he was feeling over Guilmon. Not that she wouldn't have in the past, it was just good to know that she was there when he needed it. Of course he knew that all his friends were there for him, just like they had all been there from the very beginning and they would continue to stand by him until the very end. It was just, at present, none of them, with the exception of Jeri, had been as direct about it as Rika had recently been.

It almost made all that discomfort and emotional frustration worth it.

The Tamer's stepped into the elevator, and the doors closed behind them and took them up to see Yamaki and Guilmon.

Yamaki had been waiting for them with Riley by his side as the elevator came to a stop and the doors opened. The normally cool head of Hypnos gave them all a curt nod before escorting them to a lab to see the fruits of his efforts to help Guilmon. Entering the lab, Takato and the others were plainly surprised to see that Shibumi was there with Henry's dad, working hard at a computer.

"Mr. Mizuno!" Exclaimed Takato, and the bearded man turned in his chair and gave the goggle-wearing Tamer a small smile.

"Hey, there," said Shibumi as he waved pleasantly at them. "Good to see you all again. I heard that there was some trouble so I decided to see what I could do to help. I have to say, that was a real piece of work on your friend, Guilmon."

"Can you help him?" Asked Takato, a faint ray of hope appearing in his voice.

"At present, only partially. I've been analyzing the data that we've obtained from your friend. We found a minor corruption in his original data, and it seems to have amplified his viral tendencies. Though, since he's been unconscious during his entire stay here we haven't had the unfortunate luck of experiencing that side of him. At any rate, we have come up with an algorithm that should restore Guilmon's personality to its normal parameters, but until I come up with something better his evolution line will remain shifted to his darker forms."

"Oh," said Takato looking a little downcast for a moment. "But he'll be okay, right?"

"We'll know once we try," said Shibumi as he turned back to his computer and popped open what looked like a disc drive and removed a gold colored card that he handed to Takato. Takato took it carefully and (after untangling his hand from Rika's) he took out his D-Arc swiped the card through the slot. His D-Arc flashed with a bright light, causing everyone to cover their eyes. When it was over, Takato looked at his digivice and cocked an eyebrow.

"Um… that was interesting. Now what?"

"Hmmm…" Shibumi turned back to his computer and called up a program. As Henry watched he saw that it revealed what had to be Guilmon's data patterns! They were represented on the screen in the same way as brain waves or a heart beat on a heart monitor. The waves at first remained unchanged, but then suddenly there was a spike in them that fluctuated wildly before settling down into a slightly different, yet similar, arrangement from what they had been before. Smiling, Shibumi turned to the Tamers and got up.

"Let's go see Guilmon," he said.

Rika swore that she had never seen Takato look so happy in her life.

* * *

Yamaki led the Tamers to the lab where they had placed Guilmon for observation. For everyone's safety, he had ordered that the saurian be placed in maximum security holding until he could be sure that the digimon was safe. Yamaki punched in a code on the door's computer lock, and it hissed open. As the doors parted Takato stepped forward and looked inside. Standing in the middle of the room was a black colored dinosaur with red stripes. He stared at Takato curiously, like an innocent child at a sight that it had never seen before, and he tilted his head to one side. His golden eyes held no malice in them.

"G… Guilmon?" Asked Takato cautiously at first.

The dark dinosaur didn't respond at first. Instead he just sniffed the air and crouched before leaping into the air at the boy.

"TAKATO!" Shouted the dark colored version of Guilmon gleefully as he landed on top of the goggle-wearing Tamer. "HEY!"

"HEY! No! Wait! OOF!" Takato grunted as the full force of his friend's impact (and his weight) came to bear on him. Unable to hold up his friend, Takato did the only sensible thing that he could do. He collapsed to the floor.

"That's it, Guilmon," scolded Takato as he tried to get air into his lungs. "No more peanut butter for you!"

Guilmon just laughed playfully and licked Takato across the face.

"Ah, jeez… Guilmon…" Takato groaned in exaspiration as the dino continued his treatment of his Tamer, which brought a number of smirks among the others gathered in the room. Not least of all from Rika, who was glad to see that _Dino-boy_ was all right, despite his color change. Henry brought out his digivice and called up the digimon's stats.

**BlackGuilmon**

**Stage: Rookie**

**Type: Virus**

**Special Attacks: Pyro Grenade, Rock Crusher, Virus Breath**

"Well," began Henry. "At least we know he's still on our side."

"Still eats like a vacuum cleaner, I'm sure," mumbled Terriermon.

"How're you doing, boy?" Takato asked BlackGuilmon. "You feeling okay?"

BlackGuilmon laughed childishly. "I feel fine, Takato. Look! I changed color! Takato, why didn't you tell me that I could do that? I would like trying to be a rainbow sometime. That would be fun…"

Takato sweat dropped as he heard some snickering behind him, though it was immediately followed by a sharp cry of pain. From Kazu, which was swiftly followed by a complaint directed at Kenta. Takato made another mental note to thank him.

"I'll tell ya later, Guilmon," said Takato as he embraced his partner.

Behind the pair, Jeri smiled warmly at the sight before looking over to see that Rika was doing the same.

Yamaki had judged the experiment to be a success, but felt that Matsuki's partner should be kept under observation until he was sure that Shibumi's program wasn't just a temporary fix. He probably didn't need to worry about it, knowing Shibumi, but it helped to cover all the bases just to make sure that there would be no unexpected, and unwanted, surprises.

That was when an alarm sounded. Cursing Yamaki pulled out his cell phone and called the control room, demanding what the situation was. The look on his face said all that was necessary to the Tamers and they immediately rushed for the door. Takato and BlackGuilmon swiftly joining them.

"Matsuki!" Shouted Yamaki, intent on not having them join the fight unless it was deemed absolutely necessary due to his partner's situation, but either they weren't listening or they didn't hear. Either way, they were out the door and gone, with all the others. Yamaki growled as he began to take off after them, but he stopped as a restraining hand was placed on his shoulder. Looking behind him, Yamaki found himself trapped in the lovely eyes of his fiancé, Riley.

* * *

"I don't know…"

"C'mone, cream-puff, what's da worst dat could happen?"

Calumon's ears shrunk as he pondered Impmon's words and the situation. The digimon that they had been pursuing, the one that Calumon had made _friends_ with earlier, had finally come to a rest on top of the Hypnos Towers. Impmon had gotten it into his head to go up and introduce himself to the mon. Not a bad idea of course, except for one thing. He intended to do so in his Beelzemon form.

"He might take it the wrong way," said Calumon finally.

"Well… yeah. You do have a point dere," admitted Impmon grudgingly. "But Dis guy might not be so nice when I say _hi_ , like the way he was to you. He probably doesn't think dat you're much of a threat to him, seeing as how you gorge yourself so much on sugary treats and say things that don't make a whole lot of sense. Much as I hate to admit it, that visor-boy with the dump truck for a partner is right. You're about as tough as _Butterscotch Pudding_. _I_ on da other hand am a mean, lean, butt-kicking machine who can digivolve. _And_ with good looks too I might add. Anyway, da point I'm trying to make is, he might not take to me so well, and I want to be able to handle him in case he does turn out to be violent."

Calumon was a little unsure about this, but he felt that Impmon had the right idea. Even so, the little virus had a way of making people agitated because of his mischievous nature, and that might not be a good thing when dealing with a Wild Digimon.

"I guess…" began Calumon, and Impmon took this as an okay to go ahead with his plan. Quickly digivolving to his Mega form of Beelzemon he leapt over to the angelic digimon that sat on the roof of the Hypnos Towers. Approaching him slowly, but casually, he called out to him.

"Hey! Pineapple Head! What're you doin'…"

The digimon turned around, and as soon as he saw Beelzemon his eyes widened and his face contorted into the unmistakable mask of fear. Beelzemon held out his clawed hands to show that he meant no harm, but seeing as that they _were_ clawed, he decided to throw in a vocal confirmation to go along with it.

"Calm down. I don't mean any…"

The angel-winged digimon jumped into the sky and pulled out a bow, fitting it with an arrow that crackled with electricity at its tip.

"A DEMON LORD! DESTROYER OF LIVES! PREPARE TO BE REFORMATTED, KEEPER OF GLUTTONY!"

_Oh, you have **got** to be kidding me,_ thought Beelzemon as the digimon loosed a bolt of lightning at him.


	16. Chapter 16

Ryo lost track of the digimon visually after the first couple blocks, but that wasn't a problem. Switching to his D-Arcs compass function he began scanning the surrounding area for the closest digimon signals.

"Okay," said Ryo as the compass first swung uncertainly around before pointing in a more specific direction. "Looks like we're coming up on something…"

Suddenly there was a loud explosion up on top of the Hypnos Towers, causing Ryo to look up and blink in surprise. At the top of one of the buildings, smoke curled up towards the sky.

"You know, Monodromon," said Ryo. "I don't know why we even have this compass thing. It's not like digimon make it that hard to find them when they go on a rampage."

"I don't know. I kind of like it."

Ryo laughed lightly. "Just get ready to biomerge."

* * *

**Ka-Boom!**

Beelzemon cursed as he was thrown onto his back from the force of the digimon's attack. Raising himself up on one arm he groaned.

"Is this a bad time to say, _I told you so_?" Asked a small, child-like voice from behind him. Beelzemon didn't need to look to see that Calumon had decided to fly on over to watch the festivities.

"Shaddup!" Growled Beelzemon as he got back to his feet. _Jeez, that little squirt packs quite a punch. Judging from his size, I would have thought that he was a rookie or an In-training, but for me to feel a hit like that has got to put him on the Ultimate or Mega level! Arrrgh… Why can't I get the easy ones for once?_

Beelzemon took a look at his adversary, who was currently circling around and fitting another arrow to his bowstring. It was just a little guy, more human like in appearance then your standard digimon, only cherub like and with little angelic wings that were almost reminiscent of MarineAngemon. That, and he was garbed in red and pink clothing. Beelzemon granted himself a rare moment where he wished that a Tame was nearby to analyze this guy so that he could figure out what tactic best suited him for taking it down. In the past he would have just pulled out his guns and blast the annoying little creature without a second thought, but due to certain events involving his service to the Devas he didn't play like that anymore. Well, not all the time. Gritting his teeth, Beelzemon tried once more to reason with the angelic digimon.

"Look, bub," he called out. "I don't want to hurt you. In fact, I _only_ came here to _talk_ to you. But if you don't stop trying to shoot me with those arrows of yours…"

**"Heart's Rage!"** With a cry, the cherub digimon let loose another blast with a lightning arrow. As it sped towards the Demon Lord, Beelzemon gave a snarl and whipped out a shotgun. Without even taking the time to aim, or even needing to, Beelzemon pulled the triggers and blew the arrow to smithereens, kicking up a cloud of dust and fire as the shells slammed home. As the smoke cleared, Beelzemon glared at the astonished little digimon with a fierce intensity in his three eyes.

"Don't say that I didn't warn ya. Now, I'm giving you… _one_ … last chance to just talk. And if you decide that you want to continue with dis stupidity, den I'll have no other choice but too…"

**"Heart's Rage!"**

Beelzemon jumped to the side, firing off his gun as he did so.

"Why won't dis bum just _listen_ to me for once?"

"You sure have that affect on people, don't you Beelzemon?"

"Calumon," growled the Demon Lord. "Will you _please_ just shut up and go find me some Tamers already?"

Even though Beelzemon wasn't looking at the cream-puff loving digimon, he could swear that he had just cocked his head to one side in confusion.

"Are you asking for help?"

"Of course not! I just need someone who'll show more restraint than I will, otherwise dis guy will just end up as digital debris with half of Hypnos taken out along with him. And then there're going to be a lot of unhappy people."

"Ohhh… I see. I'll go see if there's anyone around." And with that, Beelzemon turned just in time to see Calumon expand his ears and leap off the building.

_Sheesh. Sometimes I wonder what goes through dat head of hi…_

**Wham!**

Beelzemon gave a shout of pain as a silver arrow impacted into his side, sending electricity roaring through his body.

_Idiot,_ Beelzemon scolded himself. _You'd think dat after dat mess with the Chrysalimon, I'd know enough to avoid attacks like dis._

Quickly pulling out the offending arrow with a grunt, Beelzemon swung his shotgun around and took aim at his adversary, only to have the gun shot out of his hand by another arrow.

_Great, dis is what I get for playing nice. Guess I'll just hafta pull out all the stops on dis one._ Doing a back flip (and dodging a volley of arrows), Beelzemon shot off the roof and initiated his transformation into his Blast Mode form. As his eyes changed color from red to green, great, black, bird wings tore their way out of his back, and a massive, cannon-like gun materialized around his right arm. Flexing his wings, Beelzemon caught an air current and soared upwards, catching the other digimon by surprise.

"Not so easy now when you no longer have the advantage of flight, huh? **Corona Blaster!"**

Beelzemon fired a blast of violet energy, and it slammed into the winged cherub with such force that he plowed into the Hypnos rooftop, digging up a trench. Had Beelzemon been using his blaster at full power, he surely would have gone through the building, or at least have been deleted. But having judged the strength of this digimon's attack, he didn't think deletion was going to be a likely case anytime soon so it was best to cause as little damage as possible.

Which was why Beelzemon couldn't say that he was at all surprised that the digimon was getting back to his feet.

"Rrrgh… We're not going to do dis _again_ are we?" Beelzemon readied his blaster again as the cherub raised his bow, a silver arrow already fitted on the bow's string.

**"Corona Bla…"**

**"Heart's Rage!"**

The arrow struck Beelzemon's rifle at the same second that he was letting loose his attack, and it exploded in his face. The force of the detonation caused him to revert back to Impmon. Faced with the loss of his wings gravity soon took over, and he plummeted towards the streets. His last thought before unconsciousness came over him was, _Man, he sure is fast on the draw…_

* * *

"IMPMON!" Shouted Justimon as he got the little virus digimon in his arms, before doing a flip and landing safely on the streets. He did a quick check on his comrade to make sure that he was going to be okay, and not going to delete anytime soon. It looked like he was going to make it. Looking up, Justimon saw the cherub digimon that he had noticed Beelzemon fighting. In his data sphere, Ryo heard Cyberdramon snarl.

_I'm with you there, bud,_ thought Ryo, as he raised his cybernetic arm.

**"Justice Burst!"** With pinpoint accuracy, Justimon fired round after round of blue energy blasts at the digimon. The cherub dodged the first few blasts, only to get nailed by the next barrage. Ryo grinned in his data sphere as he saw the digimon plummet to the streets, but he was a little bit disturbed to see that the digimon was still alive. Expanding his right arm, Justimon waited until the angelic digimon hit the ground so that he could use his Thunderclap attack to immobilize him.

As all plans go however, they never survive first contact with the enemy.

The cherub's eyes snapped open, and with a loud cry, he managed to stop his descent and pull back up towards the sky. Gathering pink energy in the palm of his hand, he lifted it above his head where it grew to frightening proportions like a demented, chibi version of WarGreymon's Terra Force attack. Justimon reformatted his arm to its normal size and primed his Justice Burst attack, hoping to knock the digimon out of the sky before it could deliver its crushing blow.

He was too late.

**"Amour!"** And with that, the strange, little digimon hurled the pink sphere at Justimon at a speed that almost seemed to defy imagination, and it slammed into the earth, knocking Justimon off his feet. Oddly enough, Ryo didn't feel any pain when this attack hit him. There was only a sense of warmth and safety so potent that it overwhelmed his senses, causing him to revert from his Mega form back to one human plus a Monodromon. Both looked around them, and blinked in confusion as the feeling faded. Above them, the little cherub circled around before preparing to leave again. It didn't get far.

**"Exhaust Flame!"**

A fireball slammed into the digimon with tremendous force, and sent him hurtling out of the sky where he crashed into the ground. Not to be undone though, the digimon got back up onto his feet and readied a smaller version of the same attack that he had used on Justimon earlier, and took aim at a digimon that looked very familiar to Ryo. If it weren't for the darker coloring, the Legendary Tamer would have sworn that it was Growlmon. Taking out his D-Arc, Ryo did a quick scan on the two digimon.

**BlackGrowlmon**

**Stage: Champion**

**Type: Virus**

**Special Attacks: Exhaust Flame, Plasma Blade**

**Eromon**

**Stage: Ultimate**

**Type: Data**

**Special Attacks: Heart's Rage, Amour**

Getting up, Ryo drew a card from his deck box and morphed it into a blue card. He could see that the others were coming, and seeing as how this digimon took down both himself _and_ Beelzemon single-handedly, odds were they were likely to need all the help that they could get. Just as soon as Ryo was about to slash the card, the digimon that his D-Arc had identified as _Eromon_ halted and dispersed his attack as he looked at BlackGrowlmon in surprise.

"You… you have the mark of Eris…" the cherub said in awe. BlackGrowlmon looked at Eromon, perplexed.

"The what…?" Asked BlackGrowlmon in a childish voice that Ryo wasn't expecting from so vicious looking a digimon. Sure, he had known the regular Growlmon to talk like that, but with BlackGrowlmon Ryo had expected him to sound more… well… more viral. Judging by the look on Eromon's face, he wasn't expecting it either.

_Guess that those guys at Hypnos did do something for him after all. I wonder why his coloring hasn't returned to normal though._

Rapidmon and Taomon landed next to BlackGrowlmon, and Rapidmon readied his rocket launchers.

"All right," said the green colored cyborg. "Time to send this guy packin'. **Rapid…"**

"WAIT!"

"Huh?"

The digimon turned to face Ryo in confusion. Behind them, the Tamers and the rest of the digimon drew up behind them and looked at them, wondering why they weren't continuing the battle.

"Don't attack," said Ryo. This only served to add to everyone's confusion.

"Is there a reason as to why we shouldn't?" Asked Taomon.

Ryo thought about that. He wasn't too sure why exactly, but he felt that Eromon wasn't a real threat. The attack that both he and Monodromon had experienced wasn't lethal in nature; at least that's what he had felt from it. But there was something more. Some deep-rooted sense that told him that it would be wrong to attack this digimon, though where this sense had been earlier had disappeared when he saw Beelzemon tussling with the digimon. Ryo frowned. What little he had seen of Beelzemon's fight with Eromon suggested that the little guy _could_ be dangerous if he wanted to, but why he had been so rough with Beelzemon instead of Justimon seemed to slip his mind somehow. Knowing this, it wouldn't provide much of an excuse to keep the others from starting a fight. However, there was something else that was there that he could use.

"Because he knows what's wrong with Guilmon," said Ryo finally, and that seemed to do the trick.

* * *

After a brief debate, the Tamers convinced Eromon to allow them to _escort_ him to Hypnos (this was facilitated by the appearance of Calumon, who seemed to have a rapport of sorts with Eromon, and the Ultimate level digimon seemed to trust the little digimon's judgement) and they soon found themselves in the same room where Takato had received the gold card from Shibumi. Among the Tamers and digimon who were gathered to hear what Eromon had to say was Shibumi, Janyu, Yamaki, Riley, and Talley.

"All right," said Yamaki coolly. "We're here, so do you want to tell us who you are, and what it is that you're doing in the real world? And what you know of Guilmon's condition?"

Eromon looked over at Calumon, who was sitting on top of Jeri's head, nervously. The little digimon just laughed at Eromon and nodded. Eromon's gaze wandered over the humans and digimon, pausing slightly on Impmon, who was holding an icepack to his face. Eromon grimaced. He wasn't sure what it was that had possessed them to allow a creature such as this into their ranks, but he wasn't going to question why. He was sure that they had their reasons for it, and besides, there were more important matters to attend to right now.

"My name is Eromon," he began. "And I am part of a group of digimon dedicated to maintaining the balance of the digital world, in all its quadrants. We usually operate outside of the influence of the Sovereigns, but we do maintain a relationship with them, as we're among some of the few digimon capable of communicating with the digi-gnomes."

"Wait," said Henry. "You can talk to the digi-gnomes?" Eromon nodded.

"Yes. I, and others like me work more closely with the digi-gnomes than the Sovereigns do, and we even delegate tasks for them to keep the harmony of the digital world maintained. In many ways my very existence is also dependent on them. I am a rather _unique_ , shall we say, digimon. As in, I'm not natural. I came into existence shortly after a time in digital history when the digital hazard occurred, nearly destroying the digital world. My sole purpose is to spread light and love throughout the world…"

"Coulda fooled me," muttered Impmon, but Eromon ignored him.

"… But there was a consequence of my existence. As a polar force of existence, my opposite was also created. I believe that you fought her earlier today…"

"You mean Erimon, right?" Asked Takato.

"Yes. She represents disorder and strife. It's her job to maintain the other half of the scales. That was the agreement that we made when we first met."

"Agreement?" Asked Jeri.

"At some point, both of us found that we were undoing each others work, and things turned into a war between us. Both of our attacks were useless against each other, but not to the digital world, and that brought the attention of the Sovereigns. As they couldn't delete us, they made us swear an oath of balance to each other, and after that we worked to create a… _chaotic order_ I guess you could say. Sounds nice, but I always thought that it meant maintaining the status quo. At any rate, over time Erimon had been becoming increasingly dangerous to be around. It started after she was attacked by a digimon. She defeated it, but something in its data corrupted her and gave her even greater powers as well. She was able to harm me in her new form, and… I fled."

"But why come here?" Asked Shibumi. "Couldn't you have just gone to the Sovereigns and asked for help?"

Eromon shook his head. "They've been busy since the D-Reaper crisis, but there isn't much that they can do anyway. Erimon and I are closely linked to the emotions that are emitted from the real world, and this affects us from time to time, both strengthening and weakening us. I had hoped that, by coming here I could _heal_ some troubled hearts and at the same time restore some semblance of balance for Erimon so that she could fight whatever was causing her to act like this."

Henry's eyes widened as his mind latched onto this. _That's it! That just proves everything right there…_

"What kind of healing?" Asked Henry. Terriermon, Renamon and Rika both looked at him curiously, though with Rika it was with a touch of fear in her eyes. Even Riley and Yamaki seemed to take some interest in what the angel's response would be.

"My methods are similar to a myth that you humans have involving love. I believe that you called that myth, _Cupid_." Eromon suddenly giggled like a child. "To be honest, I based my form and abilities on Cupid, though I had to be creative in order to develop some regular digimon attacks, like the sort that you saw earlier today. But I don't like using them a whole lot. I prefer my Cupid's arrow approach. I used it quite a few times since I've been here. Even on some people in this room such as the man with the dark, funny looking objects on his face…" The color in Yamaki's face just drained right away. Next to him, Riley tilted on her feet before regaining her balance. Janyu looked stunned, but for some reason Shibumi didn't look at all surprised. Eromon continued on.

"… And on the first person I ever met when I came to the real world." Eromon looked in Rika's direction, and everyone else followed his gaze. Rika blinked a few times, and then flushed insanely deep. She didn't say anything yet, though. Her mind just seemed to up and go on vacation as everyone else around her began to process this latest bit of information.

Ryo's mouth turned into one big _'O'_ , but no noise came out. Used as he was to experiencing events of a strange nature, this was one that topped them all, and for once in his life, Ryo Akiyama couldn't find a single thing to say. Not even a joke to lighten the mood.

Henry looked at Rika and gauged her reaction. He had expected anger. Some shout of righteous indignation, threats of intended violence towards Eromon or everyone in the room, or at least to get up and launch herself at Eromon and try to delete him personally. But she didn't do that, and that surprised him. And what surprised him even more was that Rika actually looked _sad_. He had seen her sad before, but this… she looked like she was trapped in a dark pit with no hope of ever getting out. For a moment she looked like a child who had just wandered away from home, and didn't know the way back. Henry looked over at Renamon, and saw that she was glaring at Eromon in such a way that, if looks could kill, Eromon would have died screaming.

Takato was stunned. There was just no other way to put it. But at the same time he felt a slow anger burning in his heart over what the digimon had done to Rika. Had done to Yamaki and who knows how many more? _What gives him the right?_ Takato wondered. _What gives him the right to toy with people's emotions like this?_ Takato had half a mind to launch himself at Eromon, but a quick look at BlackGuilmon recalled the memory of Megidramon, and he took a shaky breath to calm himself. Even so, he wasn't sure that he could forgive Eromon for what he did, despite his reasons for them.

Jeri looked sorrowfully at Rika. To think that she had actually _encouraged_ Rika's feelings. _Why did he have to pick Rika of all people? Hasn't she been through enough already?_ Jeri thought back to all the times that Rika had been messed with. She had heard about them from the others of course, since they had occurred both before and after her adventures in the digital world, and at those times she didn't have a partner with her that would allow her to participate in and witness such events. IceDevimon, Parasimon… Rika seemed to share quite a bit in common with her when it came to being manipulated by a digital entity. Jeri reached over and clasped one of Rika's hands in her own, to offer some measure of comfort, but the girl jerked away angrily. Jeri gasped as she saw the fire that now burned in Rika's eyes.

"Rika…" Jeri whispered.

At the sound of the girl's name, Kazu snapped back to reality. Like the others, he too had been stunned by this revelation, but not to the extent that the others had been. Mostly because to him, it made sense. All of Rika's actions were now explained! And in a way, it also meant that he could relax a little. The end of the world wasn't coming…

"Rika… Rika's a victim of one of _Cupid's_ Arrows!?" Exclaimed Kazu, as he struggled to hold back laughter. "I… oh man! The irony! That is so hilarious… Aaagh!"

Kazu bit back a curse as Kenta began grinding his knuckles into Kazu's skull. Rika just ignored them as she fixed Eromon with a fierce look that made him want to step back.

"You… you _did_ this to me?" She said in a low voice. "You… shot me with that stupid arrow and… _made…_ me fall in love?"

Eromon blinked. "I don't understand. I sense that you're angry…"

" _Angry?_ You force emotions on me, and you're wondering _why_ I'm angry?" Rika got to her feet and advanced one step. An aura of anger just seemed to pervade the air around her. Everyone stared at Rika in awe of the raw emotions that were pouring out of her voice. "Don't you get it, you nimrod? You can't force people to choose the ones that they love! It has to come naturally. What you do… what you did to me… it makes me _sick_!"

"Here, here," said Ryo in agreement.

"I know," said Eromon looking down sadly like a child that had been scolded (and in a way he was). "I had… an _interesting_ conversation with Calumon before I met you that convinced me of that. Unfortunately, it's too late for me to turn back the clock. For what it's worth, I'm sorry."

Rika glared venomously at Eromon. "Sorry isn't good enough," she spat. With that said, she turned and walked out of the room. Takato snapped to attention and got up.

"Wait. Rika!"

"Leave me alone, Gogglehead!"

Takato was about to follow when a hand fell onto his shoulder. It was Ryo.

"Give her time," he said with sad eyes. "Now's not the best moment to talk to her."

"But…"

That was when Jeri came up and took Takato by the hand.

"It's okay Ryo. Takato? Can we talk?"

Takato looked at the door that Rika had just exited, and then back at Jeri, feeling overwhelmed by the emotions that were roiling through his head. His first instinct was to go after Rika, but on one hand Ryo was right. She needed time to simmer down, and until then maybe Jeri could help him think of what he should say to the red headed Tamer. Takato nodded glumly, and Jeri led him out of the room.

The Tamers watched as they left before turning their attention to Eromon. None of them had noticed that Yamaki had left the room with Riley following him shortly afterwards, but a certain virus digimon did.

Impmon looked away from the distressing scene that he had witnessed and tried to look bored and uninterested. He was inwardly frightened by what had transpired, but his tough pride wouldn't allow him to show it. In an attempt to cover it up he turned to Calumon, who had hopped off of Jeri's head and settled down next to him.

"So… Big Ears. What did you say to the Cupid Guy there that made him realize that what he did was wrong?"

Calumon blinked and he looked up towards the ceiling, lost in thought.

"I don't know really. I remember that I started off talking about Cream Puffs…"

"Ehhh… Forget that I even asked."


	17. Chapter 17

Yamaki gripped his lighter tightly as he flicked it open and closed at a rapid speed. He couldn't stand to be in that room a moment longer. Not after what he had just heard. In a lot of ways he could sympathize with the Nonaka girl. Anger beat a tune behind his temples, and he could feel his veins pulsating with each beat that his heart made. This was one of those rare moments when he wished that he wasn't human, so that he could take his anger out on that digimon that had manipulated his emotions in this way. It amazed him to no end how helpless humans really were before these creatures. Perhaps… perhaps it would have been best if he had found a way to destroy the digital world after all…

_No,_ thought Yamaki as he loosened his grip on his lighter. _I left that road a long time ago, and I'm a better person because of it. But there are times where I wish that these digimon had never existed; that they never interacted with us and involve us in their own struggles. Humans have enough trouble as it is dealing with each other without involving another plain of existence. But this is the way things are. It's not up to me to say what's fair and what's not…_

A hand fell on Yamaki's shoulder, and he stiffened in surprise, as well as berated himself for being taken unawares like that. He prided himself on being hard to sneak up on.

"You okay?" Asked Riley.

"That's a stupid question," said Yamaki bluntly, and Riley sighed, causing the Head of Hypnos to curse himself for being so direct like that. The last thing he needed was to make Riley upset with him.

"Look," began Riley. "I just…"

"I'm sorry."

"Huh?"

Yamaki held up his lighter, and fought the urge to flick it open.

"I don't mean to be so _harsh_ with you, it's just… I'm not in the best of moods right now."

"I understand," said Riley nodding.

"How are you feeling?" Asked Yamaki.

"You mean other than the fact that I just found out that the reasons behind the proposal of marriage from the man I love was really a _Cupid_ induced aberration? Just peachy."

"Don't make this any harder than it already is."

"I'm sorry," said Riley. "But you've got to admit that this did come as quite a shock."

"Tell me about it," Yamaki sighed. "But I take it that you didn't come here to tell me about your woes?"

Riley chuckled dryly. "You always have to be direct don't you?"

"I don't like to play games," said Yamaki.

Riley looked at the man with a small smile. "That's funny. When it comes to emotions you dance around the subject about as much as Nonaka does. You and her are a lot alike. I don't know about Rika, but I can't help but wonder if because of that arrow you were actually being open and honest about your feelings for me."

"What do you mean?"

Riley laughed lightly. "Now you're avoiding the issue again, just like you used to before all this. Dancing around your emotions and never admitting them so that you can maintain your _tough government suit_ attitude. I don't mind it. To be honest I find it attractive, but it's not the basis for a good relationship. You and I…" Riley took one of Yamaki's hands into her own. "… We've had something good together even before this happened to you. We just don't admit it. Not to each other, and not to our coworkers. Tell me, how long have we been going out, and only been calling it a _legitimate workplace relationship_?"

Yamaki didn't answer, so Riley did.

"Almost a year, since we began to see each other more _officially_ right? A few months since the Parasimon incident at least, though we saw each other even before then. You want to tell me that that was caused by Eromon? If so, then you're crazy."

Yamaki looked at Riley with a serious expression on his face.

"I know," he said, and he felt as though a weight had just been lifted from his shoulders. "It's just… this is a lot to take in all at once."

Riley nodded. "Tell you what. When this is all over, when we find a way to fix what that digimon did, and if that offer of marriage is still on the table, I'll accept."

Yamaki tried to keep a straight face, but deep inside he was startled. And that was when Riley went one step further, and broke down that calm façade that he always held up to the world. Riley leaned forward and kissed Yamaki passionately on the lips, and Yamaki felt himself returning the kiss. Cautiously at first, but after a second with more fervor. Riley broke away and lifted a hand to caress his face.

"I love you," said Riley. "Never forget that."

Riley walked away, heading back towards the room with Eromon and the Tamers to see if there was anything that she could do to help, leaving Yamaki alone with his thoughts.

* * *

Jeri held Takato's hand as they walked silently through the halls, neither of them saying a word at the moment, but both trying to sort things out through their minds. Jeri looked over at Takato with sad eyes.

_Takato… he looks so confused right now. So lost. I guess that I'm partially to blame for that. Not completely, but I still had a hand in it, even if I didn't know what was going on. I had no way of knowing what was happening to Rika, but I didn't help her problem by telling her it was okay to go after the boy she was being made to fall in love with. And that kiss that Takato told me about, after Kazu dragged the confession out of him that is, how much did that affect him? Takato… I care for you too much to see you like this…_

"I'm sorry," said Jeri. Takato looked at her and raised an eyebrow.

"For what?" He asked.

"For putting you in this situation, and for telling Rika that she should go after you. I can only imagine what the two of you must be going through right now."

"It's not your fault, Jeri," said Takato, giving her hand a soft squeeze. Jeri smiled sadly.

"I know. But I'm still sorry anyway. I hope that things work out okay, but I can't help but feel that this is going to leave some scars. How are you feeling?"

Takato shrugged.

"I… I don't know. I gotta admit, I never thought that I'd see this coming. Not even after that dream that I had about…" Takato suddenly stopped as he realized what he was about to say. "… Er… I mean… um… never mind."

Jeri raised an eyebrow. "Dream? What dream?"

"… Uh… Nothing, Jeri. Forget it."

"Takato… tell me. I'm interested. It helps if you don't hold these things in you know…"

Takato jerked. "Yeah, I know! It's just that Rika said that…"

"Rika!" Jeri exclaimed, smiling mischievously. "This dream you had, tell me, did it involve Rika?"

Takato blushed deeply. "Ahhh…"

Jeri stopped, removed her hand from Takato's, crossed her arms, and began tapping her foot impatiently, never once loosing that grin. Takato began to feel _very_ nervous.

"Takato…"

Takato sighed in defeat and slumped his shoulders. Jeri wasn't going to let him out of this one.

"All right. All right. It happened before I got Guilmon, but after I got my digivice. I went to sleep, thinking about Guilmon and I… I dreamt about a girl that up until then, I had never seen before. It was Rika, as I'm sure you've guessed, and she and Renamon were fighting a Lynxmon. She defeated it with no trouble and that was when the dream ended. It was… strange, you know? That dream was so vivid it was almost frightening. And then, just when I'm starting to get a handle on digimon being real two days later Rika and I meet for the first time." Takato gave out a wry chuckle. "I gotta admit, it certainly gave a whole new meaning to _dreams will come true_. I had two at once in a period of two days. It was really freaky."

"Did… Rika have any similar…?"

"No!" said Takato a little quickly. "Uh… that is… I don't think so. She wasn't too happy with my telling her about the dream though. She threatened to kick my butt if I ever told anyone about it. Which reminds me…"

Jeri giggled. "Don't worry. You're secrets safe with me."

Takato smiled. "Thanks Jeri."

"So what are you going to do now?"

Takato sighed. "I don't know. I should probably talk to her I guess, but the way she gets sometimes… it can be rather intimidating. I'm not sure what to say to her."

"And… how do you feel about her?" Asked Jeri tentatively.

"I don't know. Before, I never thought about it, and now this comes up. I guess that I should be glad that Rika likes me, but her feelings are caused by a digimon so I'm not sure what to think right now. I…" Takato sighed in frustration. "… I just feel so messed up right now that I don't know left from right, and I'm sure Rika feels even worse. I get the feeling though that I should probably just wing it."

Jeri nodded. "Perhaps. But you should still talk to her. This isn't the sort of thing that you can just sweep under a carpet and pretend that it never happened. You two are very close friends even if she doesn't act like it all the time."

Takato nodded numbly. "I know. It's just going to be… difficult, that's all. I'm sure that I'll think of something though."

Jeri smiled, and walked up to Takato, and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, causing the goggle-wearing Tamer to turn three shades of red.

"Um… ah… uh… ah…"

Jeri giggled lightly. "You're a good guy Takato. I have faith that whatever choice you make, it will be the right one."

Grabbing his hand once again, Jeri began to walk back towards the lab, having to pull on Takato just to get him going.

_Thanks Jeri…_

* * *

Ryo had slipped out of the lab once it became clear that his presence wasn't necessary. The big brains were already putting together some kind of plan to help get rid of all the implanted data from Erimon and Eromon, and hopefully cure whatever it was that was causing Erimon to behave erratically. Next to him walked Monodromon, but the normally playful digimon kept his peace. A little surprising yes, but he understood that this was not the time to play. As they walked down the halls they came across Rika, sitting across from a window with her knees drawn up to her chest, with a furious look painted on her face. Ryo looked a bit more closely and found that there were tears in Rika's eyes, though they didn't spill out. Her pride and dignity wouldn't allow her that, with the exception of one occasion of course when their partners were forced to return to the digital world after D-Reaper was defeated. But that had been a pretty emotional time for everyone, so there was nothing to gain or lose by showing that she cared. With a glance at Monodromon Ryo walked up to her without his partner and sat down next to her.

"Hey," he said softly. Rika didn't respond. She just continued to stare out the window. "How are you holding up?"

"Is that a rhetorical question?" Asked Rika harshly.

"Yeah, I guess so. Kind of stupid too, now that I think about it. You must feel lousy right now, huh?"

"Way to state the obvious," said Rika bitterly.

Ryo chuckled a little at that. "But seriously, how are you feeling?"

Rika looked at the Legendary Tamer with narrowed eyes.

"Why do you care?"

"Why shouldn't I? We're friends aren't we? Can't I be concerned about my friends? Or do you intend to go on holding this grudge of yours for all eternity?"

Rika looked away, and for a minute she didn't say anything, her face never losing that pained expression that Ryo had first seen since he saw her. Just when Ryo was starting to lose hope that she would ever say anything, Rika spoke.

"No. I don't feel good right now," she said slowly. "But that's not what's making me angry."

"I know," said Ryo nodding. "I'd be angry too if my emotions were messed with like that…"

"It's not that," said Rika. Ryo cocked an eyebrow in confusion.

"What do you mean?"

"I am angry that Eromon did this to me, but it's not… I… I'm angry because in a way, I'm glad for it."

Ryo waited for her to continue.

"I never thought that I'd feel this way for anyone. Not since my father left anyway. Of course there's Renamon. She reawakened a lot of those feelings, helped me trust others again, but people… human people… they were different. I trust the others, and I'll admit that one time I did for a little while feel something, but I just passed it off as nothing and that's what it turned out to be. Nothing. And then… Eromon does this to me, and the feelings that I thought were gone came back." Rika closed her eyes and one lone tear traced a path down her face, but since it was on the side facing away from Ryo he didn't notice. "… And, even though they confused me so much that I hated them, it… it felt good to feel them again. I don't want to lose them. What makes me angry is that they're _fake_. They're not real. And Takato… he'd never return them. Especially not now, not after what he's just learned."

"Maybe," said Ryo after a few moments. "But I'm not so sure. I don't know Takato as well as you or the others do, but I get the impression that he's a pretty sensitive guy. I don't think that he'd treat your feelings as though they were anything but genuine, even if they're caused by a digimon."

Rika just grunted, but didn't give much else for a reply. She had to give Ryo that though. Takato was a sensitive person, and he wouldn't dismiss her feelings just like that. Things would likely be awkward between them, but he wouldn't want to lose her as a friend.

Ryo grinned and nudged the red headed girl.

"Come on," he said. "What do you say that we head back, huh? There's still plenty to do and I'm sure you wouldn't want to miss out on the action."

"Hmmph. Fine. If anything it'll give me the opportunity to bust Kazu's skull open for that crack he made about me. And while I'm at it, I should have Renamon load Eromon's data."

"Glad to see that you're back to your usual self. Well, sort of. I just gotta know one thing, though. When are you going to ask your dream boy out on a date?"

Rika narrowed her eyes as she got up. "Don't start with me, Ryo. I'd be too worried that Gogglehead would trip in public or something."

Ryo laughed and rubbed the back of his head as he stood up. "I was referring to myself actually, so you wouldn't have to worry about that. But since we're on the subject, _are_ you having dreams about him?"

Rika's eyes widened in surprise before her face darkened in a blush.

"Uh… I… Ug…"

Ryo laughed again and walked away before she could bring herself together enough to think about hitting him. God, it was so fun to poke fun at her!

_Same old Wildcat,_ he thought smiling. _But then, I wouldn't have it any other way._

* * *

Rika, Ryo, and Monodromon entered the lab to find everyone else, minus Yamaki were in the room. Looking over, Rika's eyes locked onto Takato, who was watching her nervously before he began to approach her. Rika felt herself go a little bit tense as the boy came to a stop in front of her, and blushed lightly.

"Um… Rika?"

"I'm fine," said the girl gruffly as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"Oh," said Takato nervously. "Good… wait. How'd you know that I was going to ask you that?"

Rika sighed. "It's written all over you're face Gogglehead. Now, you mind explaining to me what's been going on since I've been gone?"

Takato shrugged. "I only just got back myself."

Rika raised an eyebrow, but decided that it was best not to ask.

"Whatever."

There was a moment of silence between them.

"Rika?" Asked Takato quietly.

"Yeah?"

"Are we… okay?"

Rika huffed in exaspiration. _Why would he even **ask** such a question?_ Rika thought, even though she knew that the answer was obvious. After everything that has just happened between them, he wanted assurance that they were still friends and would remain friends even afterwards.

"Yeah," said Rika. "Of course we're fine. Why wouldn't we be?"

Takato flinched, and licked his lips nervously. "I just… thought that… you know…"

"Takato," Rika sighed and grabbed the boy's hand, causing him to look at her in surprise and blush lightly. "… Just… don't say anything. Okay?"

Takato swallowed nervously and nodded. Rika looked down at the hand that she held clasped in her own, and smiled lightly, but sadly. Fake or not though, she was glad to have some measure of comfort at a time like this.

"Hey, lovebirds!" Called out Kazu. "Are you two just going to stand there? Or are you going to kiss and… OW!"

Kazu shouted in surprise and pain as both Jeri and Guardromon took it in turn smack the visor-wearing boy upside the head (though Guardromon did so much more lightly so as to not harm his Tamer).

"Ohhh…" wined Kenta. "I wanted to do that…"

"You've been having too much fun with it though," said Jeri, laughing. "You should learn to share."

Kazu huffed and turned to his mechanical partner.

"What's with you? You're supposed to back me up here, pal! I swear…"

Luck was with Guardromon that day, because no sooner than did Kazu start in on him that the lab door opened and in walked Yamaki. All eyes turned on him. Eromon floated over to the Head of Hypnos and bowed respectfully.

"Yamaki. I would like to tell you just how sorry I am for…"

"Save it," said Yamaki as he brushed by the digimon. "Give me a status report."

Janyu and Shibumi looked at each other. Janyu coughed and pushed up his glasses before standing up.

"We think that we've found a way to fix things. I've come up with a program that will modify Juggernaut's signal to target specific data within the area of Shinjuku. Eromon's been kind enough to allow us to analyze his arrows so that we'll know just what data to target. Building up from what we've come up with for Guilmon, it shouldn't be very long before the program is ready for upload into Juggernaut's core."

Hearing this, Rika gave Takato's hand a squeeze, and he returned it.

Yamaki nodded. "And what of that _Erimon_ should she decide to come back? Do you have any ideas on what to do about her?"

"Actually, yes," said Janyu. "The data that we have from Guilmon contains some of Erimon's code in it. Not much, but enough for Eromon to recognize and point out the data patterns that have been corrupted. We can input this information into the Juggernaut for use when she arrives."

"Get to it…" began Yamaki, and then the sirens sounded. Over the loudspeaker, a voice spoke.

**"Warning! High level Wild Type is Bio-emerging! Yuggoth has been deployed but is ineffective! Bio-emergence is now eminent!"**

Yamaki looked at the Tamers, and they all nodded.

"OH, YEAH!" Shouted Kazu as he pumped a fist into the air. "IT'S PARTY TIME!"

"Nitwit," muttered Rika as the Tamers began to head for the door.


	18. Chapter 18

The sky darkened as a massive cloud of mist rolled in over the city. People looked up at the sky in curiosity, some even saying aloud that they thought that rainstorms weren't supposed to be in the forecast today. Thunder cracked in the air, and lightning danced across the city. A heavy presence beat upon the air, and many people suddenly felt the overwhelming need to be somewhere else right at that moment. Anywhere else. Fear grew in the hearts of Shinjuku, and all waited for the end to come as a sudden idea came to the minds of all who witnessed this event. A digimon was bio emerging into the real world, and it was going to be a bad one.

Rika Nonaka looked over at Takato as the elevator descended before turning back to the doors, a worried frown on her face.

" _Rika? Promise me that you'll do one thing for me while you're out there. Promise me that you'll keep Takato safe."_

After they had heard about the bio emergence, all the Tamers who were able to fight had begun to leave the room at a rapid pace. Not Jeri though. Since her partner was no longer able to fight by their side, she couldn't go with them, no matter how much she might want to do so.

As the Tamers left the room, Jeri had taken a second to pull Rika off to the side to ask her a favor, and that was to make sure that Takato would come back safe.

_I'll try to do that Jeri,_ thought Rika as she once again looked over at the goggle-wearing Tamer. _So long as I don't get distracted by him, nothing bad will happen to him. And if he **does** get hurt, I'll be sure to make him miserable._

Rika laughed quietly at the thought, and she felt some of her tension ease. It was still there though, and it soon came back in force, and she frowned once again.

_Why should I be worried though? It's probably just another Wild One that's broken through the barriers. Probably something that Calumon would sneeze at if Jeri would let him come. Don't know why he wanted to come with us anyways. Since the Sovereigns restored his digivolving powers to the digital world he's just… well… he's a **cream puff** now._

The elevator reached the bottom floor, and the doors slid open. The Tamer's filed out and began to rush towards the door. Outside, Guardromon and Beelzemon in his Blast Mode came in for a landing. As the children and digimon exited the building they took note of the digital field that surrounded Hypnos, and those that came prepared for this eventuality, slipped on their protective eye ware and pulled out their digivices before scanning the vicinity for potential hostiles. At present there were none to be seen. All that they saw was the fog, which seemed to stretch in all directions.

_Where is it?_ Wondered Rika as she looked around her. Turning to her digivice she activated the scanning function, but still didn't pick up a signal. Nearby, she heard BlackGuilmon growling lowly.

"COME OUT, COME OUT, WHEREVER YOU ARE!" Shouted a familiar, and slightly annoying voice into the mist. "COME OUT SO THAT WE CAN KICK YOUR BUTT! WE DIDN'T COME HERE TO PLAY HIDE AND SEEK! THAT IS, UNLESS YOU DO WANT TO PLAY…"

"Terriermon… this _really_ isn't the time for games…"

"Momentai, Henry," giggled the little dog bunny.

"I don't get it," said Takato as he lifted up his goggles. "Where's the digimon? You'd think that one would have shown up by now, especially in a field like this…"

Above them, there was a sudden flash of light, and a massive, egg shaped object appeared in the sky. It's shell roiling with the intensity from the energies that burned within it, and the light it emitted gave the digital field a distinct glow that gave the impression that the air had caught fire.

"Whoa," exclaimed Kazu breathlessly. "Shades of _Revenge of Diaboramon_ …"

"You can say that again," said Kenta, and next to him Ryo nodded in agreement. Beelzemon just grunted in an attempt to show that he was not at all impressed.

"That answer your question Gogglehead?" Asked Rika sarcastically. Takato sighed before looking at the others.

"All right. This is where we make the first move, so I say that those of us who can, biomerge and head on up there as close as you can get. Kenta, Kazu, you guys are support."

"You got it," said Kazu as he flashed Takato a thumbs up and climbed up onto Guardromon's shoulder. "Let's go Kenta!"

"Ohhh… why do we always have to ride Guardromon?"

" 'Cause those bubbles of your partner's move slower than my grandmother, now come on! Guardromon, soon as he gets on, let the lead out!"

"At your command, Kazu!"

"Now you're talkin'!"

As soon as they lifted off, Ryo turned to Takato.

"If it's all the same to you, I'm going to digivolve Monodromon to Cyberdramon. Justimon can't fly, and I'd rather keep air superiority and use modify cards until it's absolutely necessary for us to biomerge."

"I'm goin' witcha," said Beelzemon gruffly.

Takato, Henry, and Rika nodded, and Ryo slashed a blue card through his D-Arc. A second later, both he, Cyberdramon, and Beelzemon took to the air. Rika, Henry, and Takato now looked at each other.

"Well," began Henry. "Let's get this over with…"

"Hang on, Henry," said Rika. "I need a second here."

Everyone looked at the red haired Tamer with a raised eyebrow.

"Rika?" Questioned Renamon softly.

Rika turned to Takato with a serious expression on her face.

"Takato," she began. "Before we head out there, I'd…" Rika fought the urge to look away and succeeded, though her face felt like it was on fire. "I'd like to tell you…"

"Um… Rika?" Asked Terriermon. "Not to ruin the moment or anything, but we **do** have a situation on our hands here…"

"Shut up, Rabbitmon," Rika grated.

"Terriermon…" warned Henry, and the long eared digimon, for a wonder, quieted down. Rika continued.

"I… I know that what I'm feeling for you was caused by Eromon. And I know that you would rather be with Jeri…"

Takato opened up his mouth to say something, but Rika continued to speak so as to not to let the boy get a word in edgewise.

"… But I can't help but feel the way I do right now, and I want you to know that I… _care_ … for you, before I don't get the chance to feel this way again."

"But, Rika…" Takato tried to speak again, but Rika overrode him, and took a couple steps closer to him.

"I just wanted to let you know, before we go back to just being friends again." As she finished those words, Rika grabbed Takato and pulled him in close, their lips meeting once more in a passionate embrace as Rika expressed her love for the boy in the one way that she knew how. Takato's eyes widened in surprise (though too be honest, he wasn't sure why he continued to be stunned by this), and unconsciously he felt himself returning the kiss before Rika broke away, her breathing a little ragged, but controlled.

"Thank you," she whispered.

On the sidelines, Terriermon stared with his jaw unhinged and eyes wide with shock. Renamon watched the pair sadly while Henry looked away. BlackGuilmon just blinked in confusion.

Rika stepped back.

"That one was for luck, Gogglehead," she said with a warning tone in her voice. "So don't go thinking anything funny when things go back to normal, got it?"

Takato, his face flushed, nodded dumbly like a trained seal.

"Um… thanks?"

Rika sighed.

"The Digimon Queen is handing out _Good Luck Kisses_?" Exclaimed Terriermon in surprise. "Do I get one? We sure could use all that we can get…"

Rika glared at the bunny. "Zip it."

Henry laughed. "Don't worry, Terriermon. I'm sure if Suzie were here, she'd have one to give you…"

Terriermon gasped in fear. "Don't even joke about that Henry! She _still_ threatens me with the 'Princess Pretty Pants' treatment…"

"All right," said Henry. "That's enough. Let's just get this over with."

With that, Takato snapped out of his daze and all three of them raised their D-Arcs to the sky as they began to glow like miniature stars.

" **BIOMERGE, ACTIVATE!"** They shouted, and the light enveloped them and their partners.

* * *

In the sky, the digi-egg's fiery light flared, and a crack appeared on its surface.

* * *

Warnings flooded the Hypnos system as massive amounts of data was coming in.

"What's going on?" Demanded Yamaki hotly.

"Massive data surge," said Tally. "High level Wild Type is emerging from the data sphere! I've never seen anything like this before!"

Yamaki growled. He felt like he was having flashbacks to earlier times, when Digimon were first bio emerging. Back then, there had been a lot of events that went beyond anything that they had witnessed before. For this to top all previous events…

"This isn't good," muttered Yamaki. "I want an analysis on the incoming data _now_! And get someone to tell Janyu and Shibumi to hurry up with that program!"

Unnoticed by the people in the control room, Eromon stared at the data that was being displayed on the screens.

"She's here," he whispered.

* * *

Takato floated in the dark colored data sphere as he looked up at the digi-egg, contemplating on everything that had occurred so far. When he biomerged with Guilmon, he noted that he had become a knight similar in form to Gallantmon, only with a darker shade of armor with blue trim, and a red haze seemed to cloud his vision. His emotions also felt slightly heightened, particularly the negative ones, but he couldn't afford to think about that at a time like this. In his mind, he could feel BlackGuilmon, working with him rather than against him, as he had felt in his dream when they had first merged into the dark knight that his friends had told him was called ChaosGallantmon. Takato grinned a little in his data sphere. As much as he would have preferred to be Gallantmon, he had to admit, he was a little bit taken with the new appearance. It had a dark, brooding look to it that went with the traditional fallen hero type. Even so, he would have preferred to be Gallantmon for this fight. Not that he didn't think that ChaosGallantmon wasn't cool it was just a matter of preference. ChaosGallantmon felt just a little too close to Megidramon without actually being the creature for Takato to really feel comfortable in the form.

Corrupted evolutions brought back too many bad memories.

Turning his head, Takato looked at Sakuyamon and his expression softened. Looking away, Takato tried to focus on the task at hand.

_Why do things have to be like this?_ Thought Takato as he shook his head. He felt deeply saddened that Rika had to go through all of this, having her emotions manipulated in this way. It was unfair on her, on both of them in fact. Thinking back though, he could understand Eromon's reasoning behind it, but he still didn't think that it justified what he did. Takato tried not to pity Rika. She wouldn't have liked it if he did, but he found that he just couldn't help it. Had he not been data inside the form of a digimon he would have shed some tears, but he didn't. Takato still felt horrible on the inside though, and BlackGuilmon sensed this.

"Takato? Are you all right?"

"Y- Yeah," choked out Takato from within his sphere of darkness. "I'll be fine."

Silence now, and Takato once more looked at Sakuyamon.

_I know I should be glad that Rika will be returning to normal, especially after what's been done to her. But… why do I feel a big empty space in my heart?_

A flash of light brought Takato out from wallowing in pity, and back to the reality of the situation.

* * *

The digi-egg shattered, and from it emerged a large, serpantine form that easily dwarfed the Hypnos Towers. It had flexible, plate like armor that resembled obsidian that ran the length of its body, with spines and horns protruding from the back, shoulders, arms, and head. It's eyes glowed with a fierce, crimson glow as it reared its head towards the sky and let loose an earthshaking roar.

**MaliceEridramon**

**Stage: Mega**

**Type: Virus**

**Special Attacks: Chaos Blaze, Strife Flare, Anguish Claw**

"Uh… uh… uh…" Kazu stammered, trying to get something coherent out, but the sight before him just completely and totally overwhelmed him.

"You said it," said Kenta.

"Uh… oh…"

"Yeah…"

Ryo lowered his digivice after analyzing their foe and turned to Cyberdramon. The dragon cyborg growled menacingly, but withheld his attack until Ryo was ready to give the word. Ryo raised his D-Arc to the sky and there was a flash of light.

" **BIOMERGE ACTIVATE!"**

"CYBERDRAMON, BIOMERGE TOOO…"

"JUSTIMON!"

The light died down, and where Ryo and Cyberdramon had once stood was now the cybernetic warrior known as Justimon. His red scarf billowed in the breeze behind him, giving him the appearance of a noble hero out of a story. Nearby, Beelzemon grinned as he hefted the cannon on his right arm.

"Decided to suit up after all, huh? Or are you just doing dis so you can impress us?"

Ignoring the Demon Lord, Justimon turned to Kazu and Kenta.

"This looks like it's going to be a bad one. Are you guys sure that you want to stick around?"

Kazu snapped out of his daze.

"What're you talkin' about? Of course we're going to stick around! A Tamer never walks away from danger!"

"Great," groaned Kenta. "Now you're starting to sound like Rika."

"Ohhh… seriously? Man, that can't be good for my health. Either way, we're stayin'."

"I don't know," said Kenta as he turned to MarineAngemon. "What about you buddy? Do you want to stay and help out?"

The little pink fairy looked at his partner and smiled.

"Pi!"

Kenta smiled back.

"Well all right then! If you're willing to stick it out, then so am I! Let's go!"

With that, Kenta took off at a run, pulling out his D-Arc and a few cards and screaming what could be loosely called a Norse battle cry. In Kenta's sense of the sound anyway.

Kazu, Guardromon, Beelzemon, and Justimon watched the boy as he charged after the enemy and sweat dropped.

"Man, he's nuttier than a fruit basket," said Kazu. Beelzmon and Justimon both nodded, and a second later they were following Kenta's lead, wondering if they should applaud the boy's bravery or drag him by the hair to a safer place.

"Man, what an idiot," muttered Beelzemon.

* * *

" **Demon's Disaster!"**

" **Mega Barrage!"**

" **Amethyst Mandala!"**

A beam of lightning, followed by an arsenal of missiles and rings of violet energy smashed into MaliceEridramon with deadly force, almost knocking her off her clawed feet. Turning towards her attackers, MaliceEridramon let out a fearsome roar as flames licked at the entrance to her mouth.

" **Strife Flare!"**

A blast of fire shot out towards the three Mega digimon. Sakuyamon and ChaosGallantmon quickly jumped out of the way, but MegaGargomon, due to his size, was unable to move away quickly enough, and he took the attack head on. Henry and Terriermon both screamed as the force of the impact drove their form into the ground, digging a deep trench into the ground. Crying in defiance, ChaosGallantmon leapt into the air, charging energy into his shield before firing it off in one massive beam aimed right at MaliceEridramon's serpentine head.

" **Judecca Prison!"**

With frightening speed that belied its size, MaliceEridramon spun around and deflected the attack by swinging its tail and, as an added bonus, caught ChaosGallantmon with its crushing weight and drove him into a nearby building.

"TAKATO!" Shouted Sakuyamon as she unleashed her Spirit Strike attack on the monstrosity, only to find that it had no visible effect. Taking flight, Sakuyamon dodged a searing Chaos Blaze before calling out another attack.

" **Amethyst Wind!"**

Purple crystalline shards appeared in the air before shooting towards MaliceEridramon, shattering on her armor without doing any real damage.

_Rrrrgh… Her defense is too strong, and it's not helping things that my attacks are data based while she's a virus! I need to come up with something else…_

" **Corona Blaster!"**

" **Justice Burst!"**

Blue and violet colored energy blasts crashed into MaliceEridramon, causing her to scream in pain as the massive reptilian digimon turned to face the new threats.

_That'll do just fine,_ thought Sakuyamon as she turned and flew towards the building where ChaosGallantmon had been sent into like a demented baseball. As she landed she heard a voice call out _Mega Barrage_ , and the building shook as explosions tore up the streets behind her. Sakuyamon smiled. It was nice to know that MegaGargomon wasn't out of the fight just yet.

"GOGGLEHEAD!" Called out Sakuyamon in Rika's voice. After a second of getting no response, Sakuyamon was just about to call out again, when she suddenly spied a pair of glowing red eyes. Within moments, ChaosGallantmon emerged from the shadows, his armor slightly battered and his cape torn.

"You all right?" Asked Sakuyamon. ChaosGallantmon nodded.

"I'm fine. Just feeling a little bit irritated now. Let's take this digimon down."

Sakuyamon nodded, and together the two Mega's went to rejoin the fight.

* * *

"Status report!" Demanded Yamaki as Hypnos suddenly rocked around them. "What's going on out there?"

"Establishing satellite feed now," said Riley calmly, and within seconds a screen was showing them an aerial view of the battle that was occurring in Shinjuku. The scene that was now being streamed to them showed a group of strange creatures that, for those gathered within the Hypnos control room, recognized all to well as the Tamer's digimon. Smack in between them however was another digimon, a large one, that none of them recognized. At the entrance to the Hypnos command center stood Jeri Katou with Calumon held tightly in her arms. She winced as she saw Justimon get hit by one of the digimon's clawed arms and was sent flying into Guardromon.

"Receiving incoming data now sir," said Tally as she busily typed in commands on her computer's keyboard. "We have an unknown, high level, Wild Type. I'm reading massive power levels. It looks as though the data is fluctuating, and I'm picking up energy surges from within the fabric of the network itself! Sir! This creature is feeding off of the Internet!"

"If it keeps this up, we could suffer a network melt down," said Riley.

Yamaki growled and flicked his lighter open again.

_What is keeping Janyu and Shibumi?_ Wondered Yamaki. _If they don't deliver a functioning program soon, all will be lost!_

Yamaki flicked the lighter closed.


	19. Chapter 19

Shibumi removed a CD from the drive machine and looked at it carefully.

"If only we had time to test it properly," said Janyu from next to the other man as the building shook from the shockwaves from the intense battle that was occurring in the city. "Then we'd at least know for sure that it would work."

Shibumi laughed, surprising Janyu.

"Come on Tao," Shibumi said. "We've been through this before with D-Reaper. The least you could do is show some faith."

Janyu blinked, and then smiled. "You know, it never ceases to amaze me how you always go into these things so calmly. Sometimes I wonder if you know what the outcome is going to be before the rest of us do."

"Like I said; it's all about faith. Now come on. Let's get this little baby down to Yamaki so that he can work his magic."

* * *

MegaGargomon fell with a crash as MaliceEridramon pinned him to the ground with a clawed hand. The large, dragon serpent began to move her head closer the giant, fortress digimon, her mouth opening wide and baring her teeth.

"Looks like this digimon wants us for dinner," said Terriermon forlornly.

"Not if I can help it!" said Henry from within his green data sphere, grunting slightly under the weight that was holding them down. MegaGargomon raised an arm and took aim at MaliceEridramon.

**"Voltage Blade!"**

Before MegaGargomon could fire, Justimon came in, his right arm having morphed into an energy-projecting device, generating an energy blade at its tip. With one, vicious slash, Justimon's blade tore a swath across MaliceEridramon's face, before doing a flip in the air and re-morphing his arm back to its original form and began to fire energy blasts from it.

**"Justice Burst!"**

Screaming in rage and pain, MaliceEridramon turned towards Justimon and began to power up one of her attacks, letting up on MegaGargomon as she did so.

Which was what Justimon had intended.

"NOW MEGAGARGOMON!" Shouted Justimon.

**"Mega Barrage!"**

Missiles streaked from multiple compartments from MegaGargomon's body, impacting on MaliceEridramon and kicking up massive amounts of smoke and fire. Not waiting for the smoke to clear, MegaGargomon got to his feet and leapt forward, drawing his fist back to deliver an earth shattering blow.

**"Power Pummel!"**

But MaliceEridramon wasn't there to meet his fist. Ducking under, the mighty dragon slammed into the overgrown mecha, and with a toss of her head, she sent MegaGargomon into the air and careening into the streets, tearing up the ground and sending concrete and asphalt into the air by the truckloads. MaliceEridramon hissed and once more prepared to attack, only to be distracted once more by another attack.

**"Demon's Disaster!"**

**"Corona Blaster!"**

The two attacks, though powerful, did little more than ricochet off of MaliceEridramon's armor. Lashing out with her massive tail, the dragon swatted ChaosGallantmon and mashed him into a parked car, but missed Beelzemon as he took flight into the sky.

**"Spirit Strike!"** Shouted Sakuyamon as she sent four fox spirits of fire, water, lightning, and wind at the dark dragon, but to no effect. MaliceEridramon fired off her attack.

**"Strife Flare!"**

**"Thunder Clap!"** Shouted Justimon as he enlarged his cybernetic arm and smashed it into the ground. Shockwaves tore through the streets as they headed towards MaliceEridramon, greatly upsetting her balance and causing her attack to miss Beelzemon by a hairsbreadth. A second later, more missiles from MegaGargomon rained down on the serpent and she turned back towards the giant Mega with a glare that would have seared even a Meramon.

**"Strife Flare!"** Shouted MaliceEridramon, and a ball of fire erupted from her mouth, streaking towards MegaGargomon with horrendous speed. That was when Sakuyamon leapt in front of him and raised a protective shield in front of them.

**"Crystal Sphere!"**

The attack hit the shield with murderous force, shattering it and sending the two Megas hurtling through the streets as cries of pain and surprise were torn from their throats, only to be drowned out by the sounds of their impacts. With a cry of defiance, Justimon leapt into the air and fired another volley of Justice Bursts, and was joined by ChaosGallantmon's Demon Disaster, while above them, Beelzemon began to trace the design of an upside down pentacle in the air in front of him using his arm cannon. When he was done, the pentacle flared to life as a circle appeared around it.

"EVERYONE! GET OUT OF DA WAY!" Shouted Beelzemon. "DIS ONE'S MINE!"

Obeying without hesitation, ChaosGallantmon and Justimon leapt to the side and Beelzemon pulled the trigger.

**"Corona Destroyer!"**

A blast of pure energy shot out from the cannon, hitting the pentacle, which took the blast and amplified it before sending it out in a larger wave towards MaliceEridramon. The serpentine dragon took the attack without even batting an eye.

* * *

As Yamaki and his staff watched the battle unfold it soon became clear that the Tamers were having extreme difficulty in combating this foe. While they had the advantage in numbers, and the added fact that the digimon's large size hampered its mobility, which also gave them a slight edge in the battle, none of the Tamer's attacks were so much as scratching its armor. Well, the only exception had been Justimon when he had gone straight for the face with his Voltage Blade, but after that no one was able to get in close enough to accomplish a similar feat. Yamaki grimaced as he watched Kazu's Guardromon start taking pot shots at the giant dragon while MarineAngemon fired volley after volley of hearts to go along with them. Clearly however, whatever advantage MarineAngemon had had in the previous battle, it was lost against Erimon's newest form.

"She learned well," said Eromon from next to Yamaki, and the man jolted, as though from a dream.

"What do you mean?" Asked the Head of Hypnos.

"Erimon has a way of studying her enemies tactics. After her little bout with MarineAngemon she must have gotten the idea to use massive amounts of data to act as a shield against love based attacks. The fact that that shield also doubles against regular attacks makes her even more deadly, and since she's continuously absorbing data from the network, she's constantly reinforcing her defenses so that _nothing_ can get through. For all intents and purposes, she's indestructible. I only hope that help gets here soon…"

"You're expecting help?" Asked Yamaki. Eromon nodded.

"She's broken a lot of rules right now. First off, she's threatening the stability of the digital world by absorbing data from the Internet like you said, and second, that form that she's in is not supposed to happen. She and I are like the Devas that served Zhuqiaomon. We are not meant to exceed the Ultimate level in our digivolution. Our power would be too great. What Erimon has just become will attract a _lot_ of attention, no matter where she is."

"I see," said Yamaki.

The doors leading out of the control room slid open and in walked Janyu and Shibumi.

"It's about time," said Yamaki curtly. "Do you have the program finished?"

Janyu nodded and he handed the CD to the man.

"It still needs some testing though…" Janyu began, but Yamaki cut him off.

"We don't have time for testing. We have to act now if we are to save the children and the city from destruction."

"I know," said Janyu. "I'm just saying that, under other circumstances, I would have preferred to make sure that it would work perfectly before activating it. If it fails, the children will have nothing else to fall back on."

"We'll just have to hope for the best then," said Yamaki as he inserted the CD-rom into the main computer and began to upload the program. "Because it's all we have."

* * *

In one second, MaliceEridramon shrugged off Beelzemon's Corona Destroyer attack as though it were little more than a squirt gun with low pressure. In the next she blew Beelzemon out of the sky with a Strife Flare, shattering his cannon and causing him to plummet to the ground, his wings on fire as he screamed. At the third second, the Demon Lord hit asphalt with a resounding crash. At four seconds, ChaosGallantmon rushed MaliceEridramon, screaming a battle cry at the top of his lungs as he fired a Demon's Disaster attack at his foe. In the next two seconds, MaliceEridramon returned the favor with Anguish Claw, and ChaosGallantmon brought his shield up to block the blow. There shortly after followed the sound of metal being rent and torn as the shield was shattered into pieces and once more the dark knight was thrown into the side of a building. Glass and concrete flew everywhere, but fortunately for ChaosGallantmon the building's foundations held up under the impact and did not collapse on him.

With a cry of anguish, MegaGargomon surged to his feet. Henry felt fury crying out from his and exiting his mouth as the most primal of screams erupted from his chest, and was matched by that of his partner, Terriermon. For a brief instant, Henry understood what Takato had felt when he forced WarGrowlmon to digivolve to Megidramon.

"Let's take this mon **_down_**!" Shouted Henry from within his data sphere.

"You're talking my language, Henry! Let's show this ugly excuse for a dragon what it means to tangle with MegaGargomon! **Gargo Missiles!"**

At that last cry, the two missiles on MegaGargomon's shoulders rocketed out of their casings and streaked towards MaliceEridramon and exploded on impact. Smoke and fire obscured the digimon's form and Henry waited for some sign of their enemy.

_You know,_ thought Henry as he watched warily. _It's weird. Aside from calling out attacks, this digimon hasn't once said a thing. I wonder if it's still capable of talking…_

MegaGargomon snapped out of his thoughts as he heard the sound of mocking laughter, and a second later the smoke was swept away, revealing MaliceEridramon in all her glory, unharmed.

An eerie red light glowed in the back of her throat.

"Aw nuts…" said MegaGargomon in Terriermon's voice as the Mega digimon blasted them.

**"Strife Flare!"**

MegaGargomon screamed in pain as the fireball slammed into his stomach with such force that it finally overwhelmed his defenses and forced him to revert back to Henry and Terriermon, and they collapsed with a groan. Shakily, Terriermon got back up to his feet and glared at MaliceEridramon.

"What's… it take… to… end… this… fighting?" Panted Terriermon as he hobbled forwards a bit and fired a green sphere of energy from his mouth.

**"Bunny Blast!"**

The recoil from the attack knocked Terriermon off his feet once more, and this time the little digimon passed out as exhaustion finally overwhelmed his body. His attack exploded harmlessly on MaliceEridramon's armor.

MaliceEridramon reared back to prepare an attack, only to be halted as Justimon leapt onto the top of her head and, using his scarf to lasso her, began to do his impression of Bull Riding at the Rodeo. Surprisingly, the fabric proved to be remarkably capable of accomplishing this task.

"SAKUYAMON!" Justimon shouted. "GET HENRY AND TERRIERMON OUT OF THERE!"

Wasting no time, Sakuyamon ran towards the pair and lifted them into her arms. She was just about to jump out of the way when MaliceEridramon shook her head wildly and tossed Justimon off of her, and he crash-landed near Sakuyamon with a groan. Picking up from where she left off, MaliceEridramon reared back and flames licked at her mouth.

Unwilling to leave Justimon behind, Sakuyamon summoned her Crystal Sphere and turned her back so that her body would shield Henry and Terriermon from the worst should her last ditch effort to protect her friends fail.

Behind MaliceEridramon, ChaosGallantmon had crawled out of the building that he had been mashed into, and was working on regenerating his shield when he saw what was about to happen. All at once the world slowed down to a crawl and narrowed to a needle fine point as realization burst into his mind.

"RIKA! NO!" Takato shouted from within his data sphere, and a bright light burst from within his center of being. At that same second, a similar light enveloped the Hynos Towers.

* * *

"Program uploaded, sir," said Riley as she typed in a few final commands. "Initiating Juggernaut sequence."

Yamaki flicked his lighter closed as he felt the tension build in every fiber of his being.

"Show me your magic," he said underneath his breath.

* * *

Rika waited for the attack to come when she felt a wave of energy roll over her. She half expected it to be an attack of some kind from MaliceEridramon, but as there was no pain it made her wonder just what it was that happened. Turning her head to take a look she saw that an attack wasn't the case. MaliceEridramon was caught in some kind of energy field, her attack interrupted by the unexpected occurance. The massive dragon serpent struggled and beat at the field that encased her, roaring defiance towards the heavens but to no avail. And then, something else caught Rika's eye. Looking, she gasped as she saw what looked like the proud and noble form of Gallantmon as he was enveloped in a glow of light that shifted back and forth between the light and dark spectrums, until finally, after what looked like much struggle, the light flared once and died down, revealing the form of a holy knight that Rika had seen before, and it took her breath away.

_Beautiful…_

The armored knight ascended into the sky on wings bathed with holy light, his armor much more pronounced now and decorated in red with gold trim. In one hand he held a double bladed spear, and in the other, a straight bladed sword. As he rose, Gallantmon called out the name of his new form with the sound of thunder, and he pointed his spear at MaliceEridramon.

"CHAOSGALLANTMON, MODE CHANGE TOOO… GALLANTMON, CRIMSON MODE!"

Justimon sat up on one elbow as he stared at Gallantmon, taking a moment to note the light that shone off in the direction of Hypnos.

_Looks like the others pulled through for us,_ thought Ryo from within his data sphere. _About time too. Glad to see that Takato and Guilmon are back to being their regular selves, but what's the deal with MaliceEridramon? Why isn't she changing?_

* * *

"What's happening?" Demanded Yamaki. "Why isn't there any change in that digimon's data? Answer me!"

Shibumi didn't tear his eyes away from the computer as he analyzed the information that he was receiving.

"There's just too much data," he said finally. "There's too much, and it's been constructed in such a way that the program can't get through. Sure, Juggernaut is doing its best to delete all that excess data that makes up the digimon's armor, but it's constantly regenerating itself, and at an extremely accelerated rate now! If we keep this up, the entire system will crash!"

Yamaki frowned. "Are you saying that we have to _deactivate_ the program?"

As if in answer, warning sirens began blaring. Faced with a difficult decision, Yamaki looked up at Riley.

_May everyone forgive us,_ he thought as he once more flicked his lighter closed.

* * *

The energy field that surrounded MaliceEridramon faded out of existence, and the dragon digimon roared in triumph. Justimon got to his feet and steeled himself for the battle.

"Sakuyamon," said Ryo. "Now's your chance! Get Henry and Terriermon out now while the getting's good!"

With no argument on her part, the shaman digimon jumped into the air and began to fly away from the battle scene, encasing herself in her Crystal Sphere as she made her escape. Unfortunately, her movement caught the attention of MaliceEridramon and she blew a blazing inferno after her.

**"Chaos Blaze!"**

"DIGI-MODIFY! WARGREYMON'S BRAVESHIELD ACTIVATE! STOP THAT ATTACK GUARDROMON!"

Flying up, Guardromon intercepted MaliceEridramon and threw up a shield with a star crest emblazoned on its surface. The flames licked the surface and scorched the metal, but quickly died down once it became clear to MaliceEridramon that the attack wasn't going to get through. Roaring furiously, the dragon digimon prepared her Strife Flare attack. Marine Angemon joined the robot digimon and began blasting MaliceEridramon with another flurry of hearts.

**"Kahuna Waves!"**

The heart shaped attacks exploded on MaliceEridramon's armor, releasing a pink colored aura that surrounded her, but the giant serpent blew it away with barely a pause.

**"Guardian Barrage!"** Shouted Guardromon as he sent a pair of missiles streaking towards MaliceEridramon, only to have them swatted out of the air by an Anguish Claw attack. Justimon stepped forward and prepared to fire off another round of Justice Bursts when a crimson light suddenly enveloped MaliceEridramon, and she screamed in pain as she stumbled forward. Turning her head, the dragon snarled.

"GUYS!" Shouted Gallantmon. "GET OUT OF HERE! I'LL HANDLE THIS ONE!" Without waiting to see if they would obey, Gallantmon flew towards MaliceEridramon and slashed at her relentlessly with both of his weapons, while she struck back with fire and claws.

"WHAT?!" Exclaimed Kazu furiously. "What's he talkin' about? What makes him think that he should get all the fun?"

"Kazu…" began Kenta.

"No," said Justimon. "He's right. We've tried just about everything else and it didn't work. Now it's up to Gallantmon and his Crimson Mode to turn the tides, and he's going to need to use his full power for this one. He can't do that if we're in the way…"

"I don't care," snorted Kazu. "I'm not leavin' chumley here on his own to fight tall, dark, and toothsome. Friends are supposed to be there for each other…"

**"QUO VADIS!"** Shouted Gallantmon as he hurled his spear at MaliceEridramon, setting off a huge explosion that kicked up a wind so strong that even Guardromon was knocked over by its force. Justimon got back to his feet.

"See what I mean? Tell you what. I'll stay here and see if I can't lend Takato a hand. You guys get out of here, 'cause whether you want to admit it or not, what's going on here is totally beyond you now."

"Ohhh…" groaned Kazu.

"C'mone, Kazu," said Kenta. "He's right. As much as I want to help right now there's nothing that we can do."

"Hmmnnn… all right! I guess that I shouldn't worry too much if the legendary Ryo's on the job. You better make sure that Chumley comes back in one piece, Ryo!"

In his data sphere Ryo blinked in surprise. Did Kazu _actually_ sound demanding when he said that?

_I must be hearing things. Oh well, might as well humor him._

"Don't worry. He'll be okay. I wouldn't want Wildcat to try and kill me for not taking care of her _Gogglehead_." Laughing, Justimon ran towards the battle and fired up his Voltage Blade, while Kazu and Kenta watched him with strange looks on his faces.

"I swear, that guy has a death wish or something," said Kazu as he sweat dropped.

* * *

Ryo smiled in his data sphere as he heard Guardromon's thrusters activate, and he quickened his pace. Gallantmon was currently locked fist to claw in a test of strength with MaliceEridramon, both of his weapons discarded. Ryo's smile turned into a grin. It was time to even the odds.

Leaping upwards, Justimon landed next to MaliceEridramon's legs and slashed with his Voltage Blade, attempting to hamstring her. Roaring in pain, MaliceEridramon lashed out with her tail as she tried to get rid of the annoying gnat of a digimon, but Justimon just laughed and dodged the attack. He had done his job. He had distracted MaliceEridramon long enough for Gallantmon to break the deadlock and land a punch that threw her to the side with a resounding crash. Breathing heavily, Gallantmon turned to Justimon.

"I thought I told you to get out of here!"

"You did," said Justimon jokingly. "But then I thought, _why should he have all the fun_?"

"That sounds like something Kazu would say…"

Justimon laughed. "I've probably been hanging out with him too long. Now what say that we take this mon out together?"

Before Gallantmon could answer MaliceEridramon surged back to her feet and breathed a fireball at them. Evading the attack Gallantmon grabbed his spear from where it lay on the ground before charging at the dragon.

_I can't keep this up for much longer,_ Takato thought. _If we can't end this soon, the whole city is going to be destroyed! I've got to take this thing down **now**!"_

Focusing all his energy into his spear, Gallantmon dodged an incoming Anguish Claw and stabbed at MaliceEridramon's chest.

**"FINAL JUSTICE!"** Gallantmon shouted and a bright light exploded from the blades as they made contact with their target. The energy that was pouring out from them struggled with the dragon's armor, shattering it just as quickly as it reformatted. Summoning every last vestige of his willpower, Gallantmon forced even more energy into the blade, narrowing it down to a needle fine point to achieve maximum amount of damage onto a single point, hoping that he could breach the armor. The steel began to crack and hiss as the pressure of raw power began to build up.

As Takato began to feel the strain of the power that he was unleashing, Rika's face flitted across his vision, followed shortly after by those of all his other friends and family.

_Rika, Jeri, Henry, Kazu, Kenta, Ryo, Mom, Dad… I guess this is where it all ends, huh? One way or another…_

Takato closed his eyes tightly, and he felt Guilmon's presence, joining him and lending him his support.

"You ready, Guilmon?"

"Always, Takato!"

"Well all right then! Let's **DO IIIIIIITTTTT!"**

Screaming as one, with a roar that reached a crescendo, until they seemed to be above and beyond even the power that they were throwing at MaliceEridramon, Gallantmon gave one last burst of energy before exploding into light. An earth-shaking explosion could be felt throughout the entire city.

* * *

Sakuyamon was heading back towards the battle when she ran into Guardromon with his two human passengers sitting on his shoulders, with MarineAngemon cradled in Kenta's hands. Sakuyamon looked at them.

"What's going on?" She asked in Rika's voice. "Where's Takato and Ryo?"

Kenta looked up at the shaman digimon.

"Takato wanted to fight the digimon on his own, but Ryo didn't want to leave him to fight alone, so he stayed behind."

"Yeah," said Kazu indignantly. "Can you believe those two? Thinking that they get to hog all the action when…"

"Would you put a sock in it, Kazu?" said Sakuyamon crossly before looking back at Kenta. "What do you mean, _Takato wanted to fight the digimon on his…_?"

Sakuyamon's question was interrupted by an explosion of crimson light and thunder, leaving them all speechless.

* * *

At Hypnos, the room was silent. Jeri clutched Calumon closely to her as she waited for something to happen. Some sign that life still existed on the screen that had been their view of the battle. Jeri had watched it from start to finish, and she had trembled each time she saw one of her friends get hurt. She had cried out when MegaGargomon had been battered, cheered Ryo when he had lassoed the digimon with his scarf, feared for all of them when it looked like they were about to be destroyed, and had stared in amazement when Takato had mode changed. And then there at the end…

Jeri held onto Calumon as though he were a lifeline.

"Sir," said Riley. "I'm still picking up a reading from the Wild One. Its data has been severely weakened, but it looks like it won't be that way for much longer."

"Then we have only one shot," said Yamaki. "Reactivate the Juggernaut program! If we can use it while it's weakened…"

"It's no good sir. The Juggernaut program will not engage."

_"WHAT?!"_

There was a sudden beeping on the scanners as an anomaly was now being picked up. Tally gasped.

"SIR! I'm picking up another Wild One! High level! I can't stop it!"

Yamaki's face fell, and for the first time in a long while, he looked as though he had just lost all hope.

"No…"

No one noticed that Eromon had slipped out during the confusion.

* * *

Justimon threw off the remains of the car that he had used for a shield and took a look around. All around him, fires raged, and smoke filled the air. At present, he saw no sign of…

"TAKATO!" Shouted Justimon as he got to his feet and ran out into the streets.

"TAKATO! WHERE ARE YOU? TA-KA-TO! GUILMON!"

No answer. Justimon looked frantically about and then stopped stone cold as he saw something. Some movement from within the smoke. Whatever it was, it looked _huge_.

_No…_ thought Ryo in despair as a pair of crimson eyes glowed through the thick smoke. A second later, the massive form of MaliceEridramon emerged and growled menacingly.

Justimon took a step back and morphed his arm, readying it for a Thunder Clap attack. A sinking feeling told him that Takato and Guilmon were dead. Died in the line of duty, and that he was next.

_I won't go down without a fight,_ thought Ryo, and in his mind, he heard Cyberdramon snarl in agreement.

And that was when a digital field appeared.

"What the…?" Began Justimon, only to be silenced by the light that appeared before him. From that light emerged a tall, beautiful woman with long, blonde hair, a smooth, silvery dress, and piercing eyes that were filled with love and understanding for the world and everything that was in it. Her face had a knowing look to it, as though she saw all things, and the smile that curved on her lips almost seemed to make her look as though she were amused by the things that she saw. In his data sphere, Ryo stared in amazement, and even Cyberdramon was rendered speechless.

"Greetings, Legendary Tamer," said the woman.

Justimon stuttered over his next words. So transfixed by her beauty, he had a hard time making coherant sentences. Finally, he managed to say something.

"Who… who are you?"

"Her names Aphrodimon," said a voice behind him. Turning, Ryo saw that Eromon had arrived. "She's what you could call my boss. Also my mother, but we won't get into that right now."

The woman that Eromon had identified as Aphrodimon smiled gently, but never lost that amused look on her face.

"You never want to get into that, Eromon," she said. "And you never tell me why…"

**"Chaos Blaze!"**

A stream of fire roared out of MaliceEridramon's mouth, causing Aphrodimon to look up and frown for the first time. With a light breath, the flames dispersed. Aphrodimon looked at MaliceEridramon with an annoyed look.

"Naughty little girl," said Aphrodimon as she shook her finger at the massive dragon. "You broke the rules, but I suppose that you can't be held up to blame for that. You aren't completely responsible for what's happened to you. Don't worry though, we'll fix that…"

The dragon roared and charged at Aphrodimon, anger clear in her eyes and she swiped a massive claw at her. Justimon tensed, but Eromon put a hand on his arm and shook his head.

"Don't worry. She's got this one."

Aphrodimon caught the claw and twisted, causing MaliceEridramon to fall to the ground.

"Now…" began Aprhodimon. "Let's see what we can do for you."

Looking over at the Hypnos Towers, Aphrodimon's eyes began to glow.

* * *

"Sir!" Exclaimed Riley. "Someone's hacking into the system! Somehow they're reinitializing the Juggernaut program! I can't stop them!"

Lines of data code appeared on the screen. Jeri looked around her worriedly.

"Mr. Mizuno?" Asked Jeri. "What's going on?"

Shibumi stared at the code with his mouth agape. "I… I don't believe this. Whoever it is that's hacked into the system… they're rewriting the program that Janyu and I came up with…"

"Juggernaut has been engaged!"

* * *

A blinding light cascaded all over Shinjuku, enveloping everything before finally dying down. Blinking from within his data sphere, Ryo looked at Aphrodimon. She now held a digi-egg.

"Clever humans," said Aphrodimon. "You had a good program there, but you rushed it and didn't take too many things into account. Still, you _were_ in the middle of a crisis so I can hardly fault you for that. At any rate, I now have Erimon, safe and sound, and am ready to go home."

Aphrodimon turned to Eromon. "Why didn't you try to contact me? I imagine that you could have saved yourself and the Tamers a lot of trouble by taking this problem to me directly."

"Are you kidding me?" Exclaimed Eromon incredulously. "I couldn't find you, and I didn't have time to go looking all over the digital world for you when Erimon was barking at my heels. You know how she gets sometimes…"

Aphrodimon _hmmphed_ before re-summoning the fog barrier.

"Perhaps. But next time, leave a message with my secretary or something, instead of having Erimon nearly destroy the digital world just to get my attention. If you thought you were in trouble before when you and her first fought, just imagine what things would be like if the world blew up…"

"Sorry," said Eromon, before turning to face Justimon. "Please accept my humble regrets, but I'm afraid that I won't be able to stick around to say good-bye to your friends. I kind of doubt that they'd want to say good-bye anyway. And please convey my sincere apologies for all the trouble that I've caused during my stay here…"

"You'd better be sorry," muttered Aphrodimon before turning to face Justimon. She smiled one at the Mega digimon, and before he knew it, the Eromon and Aphrodimon vanished, and a gust of wind blew apart the digital field. They had gone back. Back to the digital world.

Sighing heavily from exhaustion Justimon took a look around, thinking on the strangeness of their latest adventure, and then he felt his heart sadden as he remembered that Takato and Guilmon had sacrificed…

_Hold on…_

As Justimon panned around, he saw two battered figures lying on the ground. Walking up to them, Ryo smiled as he saw that they were the familiar forms of Takato and Guilmon. A little worn out and bruised (Takato was going to need new clothes as they were badly torn and burned in multiple places), and also unconscious, but at least they were alive, if their shallow breathing was any indication. A little worrying, but still, they _were_ alive. And that was one victory that they could bring home today.

_Anything that you can walk away from,_ thought Ryo as he lifted Takato carefully into his arms. He was just about to pick up Guilmon when a familiar voice called out to him.

"HEY! JUSTIMON! WHERE'S GOGGLEHEAD? AND WHAT'S THIS I HEAR ABOUT YOU GUYS GETTING INTO A FIGHT WITHOUT ME?"

_She sure has a way of making herself heard,_ thought Ryo, smiling.

Sakuyamon landed on the ground, trying hard to look angry as she stared at Justimon. Unfortunately, the fox mask that covered her eyes kind of spoiled the effect. She looked down at the battered Gogglehead in Justimon's arms, and her mouth became one thin line. Grinning, Ryo moved forward and handed the boy to her.

"Wha…?"

"Come on," said Justimon. "Just take him. I've still got to grab Guilmon anyways, and from all the bread he eats I'm going to need both hands free just to carry him. Besides, I'm sure that you want some alone time with _your_ Gogglehead."

"Grrr… Ryo…"

Justimon chuckled.


	20. Chapter 20

It's been at least a week since the battle with MaliceEridramon. During that time things have gone more or less back to normal. School wound up being closed for the better part of that week due to damage that the city suffered from the fight. Not that it mattered to us though. Hypnos wound up grilling us during that time, and checking us over to make sure that there was absolutely no data remaining from either Eromon or Erimon in us, or that there were no new infections, despite Ryo's assurances that there was no reason to worry about that. I wonder how he can be so confident. I know that Rika and Yamaki aren't. Rika, I'm told, was pretty quiet when the people from Hypnos looked her over, which kind of makes me worried. Usually she's never quiet. Well, not as quiet as Henry said she was. The way he tells it, she's acting like she had lost something pretty important.

I worry about her sometimes, even if she wouldn't appreciate it.

Guilmon was pretty good. He didn't object to all the poking and prodding and scanning that the scientists put him through just to make sure that every last zero and one in his code passed inspection. Henry's dad insisted that he be kept under observation. He's still there in fact (Mr. Wong also insisted on double checking his data just in case). I visit from time to time to give him bread, if only to alleviate his appetite. I hear that he raids the vending machines and mess hall at Hypnos pretty regularly.

I was released from the hospital two days ago. After the battle I was pretty much left exhausted. Mode changing and unleashing all your power in a one shot attempt to destroy an ultra powerful digimon can really take a lot out of ya, and Yamaki wouldn't let me leave until I had fully recovered. My parents agreed with him, though I think my mother voiced it more strongly when she threatened to chain me to the hospital bed. Probably one of the few times that she said that I didn't get enough sleep. The fact that at any other time she thinks that I sleep too much happens to be when I fall asleep at school has absolutely nothing to do with that I'm sure, though I am suspicious of one thing though. School started up again just as soon as I was released.

Sometimes I think that the whole universe exists just to play a joke on me.

I look out the window, waiting as the seconds tick on by. Waiting for school to be let out, so that I can leave and go home. I see a cloud pass by, and it catches my eye. For a second I see her face in it. Rika's face. It's funny, ever since what happened between me and her I find my thoughts drifting more and more to her, and I haven't even seen her since the battle. Out of all my friends, she was the only one who didn't visit me when I was at the hospital. At least, that's what Jeri says. I was unconscious for a while there so I don't really know for sure. I should see her, if only to check up on her and see how she's doing. She went through a pretty rough time.

I sighed in relief when the bell finally rang and I got up and packed my things. Ms. Asagi has been laying off on all of us lately because of what we just went through, so I won't be expecting to be held after school for not paying attention. I expect though that next week will tell a different story.

I look out the window one more time, and I catch sight of that cloud again. I smiled sadly. I think once more that I should go see Rika.

* * *

Takato Matsuki exited the school, his face downcast. He hadn't even bothered to put his famous goggles back onto his head. He had a lot on his mind, which was why he didn't bother to notice the shadow that was coming up behind him. At least, not until an arm pulled him into a headlock while a set of knuckles ground their way across his scalp.

"Hey, Chumley!"

"OW! Ow… Hey! C'mon Kazu! Cut it out! Ouch! That hurts!"

Kazu let go of his friend and gave him a grin.

"Sheesh. You can go up against everything from D-Reaper to MaliceEridramon with hardly a complaint, but when it comes to your friends that's all we ever get from ya. I tell ya, you're one weird banana Takato."

"Hmmmnnn…" groaned Takato in slight irritation.

Kazu cocked his head to one side and raised an eyebrow. "What's with you dude? You've been down in the dumps all day today. In fact, now that I think about it, you were down yesterday too. What's eatin' ya?"

"It's nothing Kazu," said Takato, frowning slightly.

"Doesn't sound like nothing. C'mon! Spill!"

"Kazu," said a voice approaching them. "If he doesn't want to talk about it then you shouldn't force him."

"Henry!" Exclaimed Kazu with glee. "I'm just trying to show that I'm concerned about one of my best buds." Kazu's face suddenly took a more serious look to it, and he eyed Takato carefully.

"Takato," Kazu said softly. " _Are_ you okay? You know that you can tell us."

Takato couldn't meet Kazu's eyes. "It's nothing. Really."

"Yeah," said Kazu snorting. "And you and Rika were ' _just friends_ ' during that little adventure we had…"

Suddenly, Kazu yelped in surprise as Jeri walked up behind him and pushed her sock puppet in the boys face and let out a _woof_ and a giggle. Takato smiled lightly at that.

_Thanks Jeri._

Takato's friends drew up to him. Jeri smiled softly at him.

"So," she began. "You going home after school? Or are you heading down to the park?"

Takato looked down. "I don't know, Jeri. I don't think so. I've got a lot of thinking to do today…"

"I'll bet," said Terriermon from his spot on Henry's shoulder.

"And what's that mean, Terriermon?" Asked Henry.

"Nothing. Nevermind."

"Hmmm… right."

Jeri watched Takato's reactions carefully, and she once again smiled softly at the boy. Walking up to him she took his hands carefully into her own and looked into his eyes. Takato blushed lightly.

"I'm sure that whatever it is that you need to think about is pretty important. I hope that you find an answer to your questions."

"Jeri…" Takato began, but Jeri stopped him as she reached into his right pocket and pulled out his yellow-rimmed goggles, placing them carefully into his hands.

"Just make sure," Jeri continued. "That before you find your answer, you put these on." With that, Jeri closed Takato's fingers over his goggles and stepped away, never once losing her smile. Takato stared at the girl with wide eyes. Jeri giggled.

"Well?" She asked. "What are you waiting for?"

Takato nodded numbly before he turned and slowly walked off, scratching the back of his head as though he were trying to figure out what just happened to him back there.

Henry turned to Jeri. "Um… what just happened here? Do you know what's going on with Takato?"

Jeri nodded and smiled, though she looked a little bit sad this time.

"He's a little bit confused right now. I just gave him some initiative to go and figure things out. I'm sure that he'll be all right eventually. He just needs some time."

Henry digested what Jeri said, and dawning came in his eyes.

"Oh. I see."

On his head, Terriermon giggled. "Never thought that I'd see the day where you needed something explained to you Henry."

"Terriermon…" warned Henry.

Kazu blinked as he looked back and forth between them. "Ahhh… I don't get what you guys are getting at. What could possibly have Takato this upset…?" Kazu paused suddenly as something in his brain clicked. Neurons fired and he made a connection.

A second later Kazu cupped his hands around his mouth to amplify his voice.

"GO GET HER, CHUMLEY!" He started to shout, but he didn't make it past _get_ when Terriermon took it upon himself to leapfrog over to Jeri and use his long ears to smack Kazu upside the head.

"Terriermon…" began Henry.

"I know, I know. That wasn't very nice."

There was a pause from Henry. "No it wasn't, but that wasn't what I was going to say. I was about to say, _good job_."

Terriermon's jaw dropped and his eyes bulged in his head. His expression was only surpassed by the look of surprise painted on Kazu's face.

Jeri laughed.

* * *

Takato made his way through the park, his thoughts drifting increasingly towards Rika as he neared the area where she lived. He wasn't sure what he was going to say to her. He knew that odds were, things were going to be awkward. He didn't want that though, but he couldn't turn back the clock and go back to the way things were. Sad, but it had the harsh grain of truth in it. The question was, what was he going to do about it? He could still turn back. Turn, and go home and never look back. But he wouldn't. He was Rika's friend, and to turn back now would be an act of cowardice, and he had already been through more than enough to have burned that trait out of him. Fear, no. But cowardice was long gone. His refusal to let go of his red haired friend back when he had saved her from falling off Locomon, despite all the risks to himself, had been the final test of that fact. Of course, calling Rika an idiot for her telling him to let go of her also could be counted as the last test. Either that or stupidity, but when you get right down to it, was there really a difference?

_Of course there is,_ thought Takato as he continued his journey, remaining firm in his belief that he was doing the right thing. Takato glanced to the side as he passed by a blossoming Sakura tree, and Takato thought back to that day on Rika's birthday, the same day that Locomon tore through the city under the control of a Parasimon. He had asked her out that day. Well, not really. He was supposed to be distracting Rika while Jeri and Rika's family prepared the surprise party that had been planned for her, and he wound up spilling the beans to the hotheaded Tamer. She hadn't been too thrilled to hear about the surprise that was in store for her so he suggested that they go cherry blossom watching together to make up for it.

He remembered that she had pointed out that the Cherry blossoms hadn't even been blooming yet at the time. For the first time, Takato realized that they never did go Cherry Blossom watching that day, or even after that. The business with Locomon had distracted everyone from the issue, and Takato conveniently forgot about his proposal and Rika, if she ever did remember, never asked if the offer was still there. Takato wasn't sure if he should feel bad about that or not.

Finally, Takato found himself standing in front of the gate that led to the Nonaka residence. Taking a deep breath, Takato raised his hand and knocked on the door. As he waited, Takato reached his hands into his pockets and fiddled with his goggles, before he remembered Jeri's advice. Bringing them out, Takato looked at them, as though for the first time before he strapped them onto his forehead. He wondered at Jeri's advice. It was a little bit strange. Before he could pursue that line of thought, the door clicked open and Takato straightened himself out. His red eyes soon found the familiar violet ones of Rika Nonaka.

Rika's eyes, which were at first bored and uninterested looking, immediately widened as they rested on his face before softening. A pained look appeared on her face, but it disappeared just as quickly as it came into existence. Nope. Nothing wrong here. Try again later.

"Gogglehead," Rika said softly. Takato swallowed.

"Hey, Rika," said Takato nervously.

"What are you doing here?"

"Well… I… I came by to see how you were doing. I haven't seen you all week so…"

"Oh," said Rika. "Yeah, sorry about that. I've… things have been… hectic lately."

"I know," said Takato nodding in understanding. He looked into her yard. "Can I come in?"

Rika nodded and stepped aside to let him through. As Takato entered, Rika spoke.

"My Mom and Grand mom are out right now, and Renamon…" Rika looked to the side just in time to see her partner disappear into the shadows. "… Is around."

Rika gave a small smile in the direction of her partner, silently thanking her for her discretion. Together the two of them walked over to the girl's porch and sat down, facing the receding sun. Neither of them said a thing for a few minutes.

"So…" began Takato, trying to break the silence. "How're you holding up?"

Rika frowned slightly. "Fine, I guess. I'm still… _adjusting_ you know."

"I see…" said Takato. For another minute silence reigned until Takato worked up the courage to say something else.

"I know that this may sound like a dumb question…"

"Then maybe you shouldn't say it, Gogglebrain," said Rika sarcastically. Takato decided to ignore this part.

"… But I need to know if we're okay."

Rika was silent for a second as she thought over what Takato said.

"You're right. That does sound stupid."

"I know, but I'd still like to know."

"Takato, _why_ would you even _ask_ such a question?"

"Well… I was worried that after what happened between… I was worried that you might try to avoid me. And I don't want that to happen."

Rika snorted. "You don't know how much I worried about that after I… well… never mind. You know." Rika looked down at the ground and blushed lightly as the memory of their 'first kiss' came to her mind. Apparently Takato was remembering the same thing, because his face was also a light shade of red.

"Yeah," said Takato as he choked out a laugh. "But seriously, are we okay?"

Rika sighed as she turned to face the boy.

"Of course we're fine. Sure, we just went through a really… um… anyway. We're still friends, and whether you believe it or not, it's… _nice_ … having you around. But don't tell anyone I said that."

Takato smiled. "Thanks Rika."

"No problem. You've done way more embarrassing things anyway. I don't see how this would affect things between us."

Takato raised an eyebrow. "You sure? I mean, with me embarrassing things go hand in hand with breathing. You showed a side of yourself that we don't usually see at all."

Rika narrowed her eyes. "And if you talk about it ever again, you'll never see that side of me again. Got it?"

Takato sweat dropped and rubbed the back of his head nervously.

"Uh… heh, heh. Sure thing, Rika."

They sat like that for a few minutes.

"Well, I guess that I should probably get going," said Takato, but Rika stopped him.

"Gogglehead? Why don't you stay a little bit longer? We don't get a whole lot of chances to hang out together, you know? Usually, when I see you it's either with Henry, Jeri, or the dimwit duo."

Takato looked at Rika, a little bit startled. "Um… okay. What do you want to do?"

Rika shrugged. "Nothing right now. I just want to sit and think for a while. You don't have to stay you know."

"No, it's okay."

Rika gave the boy a small smile.

For a while, they sat there, not saying a word, but finding comfort in the others company while the sun traced its final arc towards the horizon until the sky glowed with a golden color. At one point, Takato and Rika's hands found their way to each other, and they clasped around each other. Feelings rose in their owner's chests, but neither one acknowledged them. All that mattered was the moment, and the feeling of the others company.

Finally, the time came for Takato to start heading home, and Rika escorted him to the gate. As Takato exited the door, he turned to face Rika.

"So… see you tomorrow?"

Rika looked as though she was contemplating this, and after a moment she gave a sly grin.

"Sure thing, Gogglehead," Rika said finally. "As I recall, you still owe me an outing to some Sakura trees. You up for it?"

Takato blinked bewilderedly as he processed what he had just heard, and then his face broke into a wide smile. Rika returned it as she took certainty in that smile of his as an answer to her question.

A promise to the setting sun.

The End.


End file.
